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TO 

THE EDINBURGH REVIEWERS : 



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"AN AMERICAN." 

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCES OF 
NOVEMBER 16, 1819. 



tiENTLEMEN : 

In your 61st No. of December, 
1818, you publish a review of some volumes 
containing accounts of travels in America, from 
the year 1809 to the year 1817. To certain pas- 
sages in this review, I take the liberty of calling 
your attention. Although this letter may « ne- 
ver be delivered according to its direction," it 
may, possibly, produce some effect on those who 
have read your review. 

I beg you to believe that I should not have 
troubled you with this communication, if I had 
not entertained a very high respect for you, 
as the authors of a literary journal, to which I ac- 
knowledge myself indebted for much plea- 
sure and information, and, if I had not sup- 
posed that this sentiment was diffusing itself 
through all parts of the world, from which your 
writings are not excluded by the folly and the 
fears of bigotry and tyranny. If the remarks to 



C V . V 



^> ^060 2 



which I object, had been made by any of the peo- 



ple who infest our country, by their travels, and 
yours by a narrative of them, I should have re- 
mained forever silent. I should probably have 
continued as ignorant of their remarks as of them- 
selves ; and if accident had thrown either of them 
in my way, I should most certainly have paid as 
little attention to the one as to the other. But when 
you, who have so long stood centinels, watchful 
and faithful centinels, I admit, over the liberties, 
the literature, and the morals of Europe, and 
whose reports are read, from the Ganges to the 
Missouri : you, too, who are regarded by the Eu- 
ropean world as much more disposed to be just to- 
wards us,than any of your compeers; when you un- 
dertake to represent the character of my country, 
as dishonored and degraded by a "foul stain"—- 
by an " atrocious crime" — by " feelings and prac- 
tices amounting to the "consummation of all 
wickedness," and my countrymen themselves as 
" scourgers and murderers of slaves," and be- 
neath " the least and lowest of the European na- 
tions," I think it my right St my duty to repel, be- 
fore the world, this outrageous accusation, and to 
appeal from the intemperate sentence of unthink- 
ing or misguided philanthropy, to the sober judg- 
ment of your justice and philosophy. 

To this object my attention will be exclusively 
directed, I shall not, therefore, contrast the le- 
vity with which you speak of the " American 
King," and of the "price" for which we "hire 
our Liverpools, Sidmouths, and Crokers," with 
the sarcastic remark made on the British Cabi- 
net, for " its impertinence" in treating us with ri- 
dicule and contempt. Nor will I ask you to 
shew the consistency between that remark, and 
the suggestion so kindly offered, that, in the ab- 
sence of all learning in this country, we may live 
for half a centurv on the fame of Franklin. Nor 






will I waste a moment in commenting on the ex- 
pression which characterises the American peo- 
ple as tl vulgar and gasconading." Nor will I 
stop to thank you for your liberality in letting us 
know, that, for centuries to come,we may depend 
on the " bales and hogsheads of sense, science, 
and genius," which a six weeks' passage from 
Great Britain will place within our reach. Of 
your kindness, delicacy, and generosity, in this 
respect, rest assured that we are duly sensible ; 
and that we are as entirely convinced of your dis- 
interestedness, as we are of that of the shippers 
of less valuable, but more tangible commodities. 
Let all these things pass. When the moral cha- 
racter of a nation is denounced before the world, 
and this denunciation proceeds from a British 
tribunal, before which, at this moment, the cha- 
racter even of Great Britain stands impaled, I shall 
pass b.y all minor grievances ; and submit to 
you, at once, some considerations, which, in the 
fervor of philanthropic feelings — feelings which 
we always trust, although they almost constantly 
mislead, did not occur to you — or if they did, 
had not the influence to which they were entitled. 
I beg your indulgence for another moment.— 
You have set an example, which I entreat others, 
as well as you, to observe, I do not mean to fol- 
low. When nations are at peace, they should 
be friends. This is the recorded language 
and sentiment of the people of America, an- 
nounced at the first moment of their political ex- 
istence. I respect that sentiment. It is marked 
by wisdom as well as humanity : and when you 
avow a disposition to do justice to other nations, 
and « to lessen that hatred and contempt which 
race feels for race," and then apply to us the 
epithets to which I have referred, we are author- 
ised to condemn, as well as to deplore, your de- 
parture from a doctrine, about which we are both 



agreed. I will not therefore follow your exam- 
ple. I will not wantonly insult the feelings 01 
a nation with which we are at peace, by exhibiting 
charges against its justice, its honor, or its hu- 
manity. That task, if I wished it to be perform- 
ed, might well be left to you; for, even in the 
book before me, there is abundant evidence of 
the stern fidelity with which it would be ac- 
complished. There are, God knows, causes 
enough of collision and contest, and war between 
nations, without adding to their number or their 
force, by the bitterness of national insult and a- 
buse : and although I am not a member, and ne- 
ver will be a member of any peace society, I think 
it my duty to avoid every expression calculated 
to excite, in Great Britain, that angry and vindic- 
tive feeling which your 61st No. has produced 
here. I shall act, therefore, entirely on the defen- 
sive ; but even in this humble course the vindica- 
tion which you have made necessary will compel 
me to state some facts, which,but for your interpo- 
sition, would not, at this time, be presented to the 
view, and I will add, to the astonishment and 
indignation of mankind. 

I am as little disposed to wound the feelings of 
individuals, as to assail the character of nations. 
I beg you, therefore, to believe, that I do not as- 
cribe your language and conduct towards us, to 
any malignant or unworthy motive. I believe 
that you have spoken under the influence of feel- 
ings always praiseworthy when duly restrained, 
but on this occasion not duly restrained ; and 
under the influence of that sort of careless and 
reckless temerity which the possession even of 
literary power will sometimes inspire. 

« The great curse of America," you say, "is 
the institution of slavery. " How far this is true, 
it is not now material to enquire. It is sufficient 
for me, and for this nation, that it is not an Ame- 



rican institution. Slavery was introduced into A- 
merica, our America, by you ; by the merchants 
and traders of Great Britain, under the authority 
of the British government. You know, full well, 
that the colonial trade was under the absolute do- 
minion of the mother country, and that the im- 
portation of slaves into the colonies was sanction- 
ed by its laws. Ought you, then, in the face of 
this fact, to reproach Ms with the institution of 
slavery, and to call it a foul stain upon our cha- 
racter? Did we institute it ? Had we any agency, 
national, or even colonial, in the perpetration of 
this « atrocious crime ?" None. Make it then 
as base, and vile, and detestable as your indig- 
nant eloquence can represent it to be, and then 
take the crime and the reproach home to your- 
selves. 

But there is a great deal more on this subject, 
which it well becomes you, and every friend of 
justice, to hear and to know. I am a Virginian, 
and I speak now for Virginia only. The people 
of Virginia are not only not responsible for the 
introduction of slavery into the country, in its co- 
lonial state, but claim the merit of having done 
their best to oppose it. They not only endeavored 
to discourage the importation of Slaves, by va- 
rious duties imposed at different times, to be paid 
by the purchaser ; but, in the year 1772, present- 
ed a petition to the throne, beseeching the King 
to «« remove all those restraints on his majesty's 
governors of this colony, which inhibit their as- 
senting to such laws as might check so very per- 
nicious a commerce." They represent that the 
importation of slaves into the colonies had long 
been considered as a trade of great inhumanity : 
and, deeply impressed with this sentiment, they 
approached the throne, « presuming to hope that 
" the interest of a few of his majesty's subjects 
" reaping emoluments from this sort of traffic, 
I* 



"would be disregarded when placed in compe- 
" tition vvitli siK.h numbers of his majesty's duti- 
" ful and loyal subjects. " That the people of 
Virginia ivere deeply impressed with the senti- 
ment thus stated, is demonstrated by their con- 
duct a few years afterwards. The preamble to 
the Constitution of Virginia enumerates the caus- 
es which impelled the people of the common- 
wealth to abjure their allegiance to George 3d. 
and I hope you will be no less gratified than sur- 
prised to learn, that the failure of their efforts to 
prevent the importation of slaves is most dis- 
tinctly and emphatically announced, as one of the 
many grievances which they had endured. ( 1 The 
preamble charges the King of Great Britain ex- 
pressly with " prompting our negroes to rise in 
" arms against us ; those very negroes whom, by 
" an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused 
" us permission to exclude by law." Yes, the 
British government, for the sake of the profit of 
trading in slaves; of the money to be made by a 
few merchants, by dealing in the article of human 
flesh, refused its assent to our prayers, to stop 
this trade : and we are now reproached with the 
" atrocious crime" which that government com- 
mitted, and which we endeavored to prevent ! 

Gentlemen, the language which has been quo- 
ted from the preamble to our constitution, was 
not a mere rhetorical flourish, thrown in from 
motives of policy, or for purposes of deception. 
The framers of that constitution expressed the 
sentiments of their constituents ; sentiments so 
deeply impressed, that they had their influence 
amidst the difficulties of the war and the horrors 
of invasion. In the month of October, 1778, the 
Legislature of Virginia evinced the sincerity with 
which they had addressed the King, by passing a 

(1) I have, since the above was written, discovered 
that the fact is stated by €larkson. 



law prohibiting the importation of slaves. They 
eould do no more. 

Now, gentlemen, while my abused and insulted 
countrymen were making these fruitless efforts, 
before the Revolution, to accomplish an object 
which the act of 1778 proved they had so much 
at heart, how were the people of your « great and 
humane country" employed ? " Tearing off the 
manacles of slaves all over the world." Yes, true, 
most true. They were indeed tearing off the 
manacles of slaves ; but they were slaves whom 
they had procured in Africa, and whose fetters 
they tore off when they offered them in the vari- 
ous markets of the world for sale ! 

I have said, that the legislature of Virginia 
could do no more : they have done more. In the 
year 1782 they passed an act, authorizing the 
emancipation of slaves ; and thousands have ob- 
tained their freedom. Of the humanity of the 
motive which gave birth to this law, no doubt can 
be entertained ; but that it has produced any re- 
sults which even humanity can approve, is doubt- 
ed and denied. But this is not the place for a 
discussion on that point. My object in mention- 
ing the fact was only to shew that the legislature 
of Virginia have done all that they could do. 
They have been not only intrepidly, but rashly 
humane. (2.) 

We have Abolition Societies in the middle 
states, and Colonization Societies nearer to the 
south. The fact that these societies exist, is of 

(2.) Several years ago a bill passed the Houseof De- 
legates of Virginia, for the repeal of the emancipation 
law. The amendment of the Senate, annexing a condi- 
tion to leave the state, was finally adopted. 

Georgia, it is said, has lately repealed its emancipation 
law. That state has acted firmly, wisely, and, I have no 
doubt, humanely. The people there have met the sub- 
ject fairly ; they have looked the difficulties before them 
in the face, and, amidst a choice of evils, they have, I am 
very confident, selected the least, 



3 



itself sufficient evidence that the evil which you 
so bitterly denounce is not viewed with indiffer- 
ence here Whether these societies will not do 
infinitely more harm than good,(3) is a question 
which belongs not to this discussion, but well de- 
serves the attention of every man who feels the 
smallest solicitude for the future peace and safety 
of his country. (4 ) 



(3.; What the opinion of the Senate of Virginia is on 
this point may be inferred from the fact, of their refus- 
ing- to direct their clerk to furnish the Colonization So- 
ciety of Washington w.th a copy of a correspondence 
which the House of Delegates had two years ago per- 
mitted to be made public. The vote, it is said, was 16 to 
2. The opinion of the state of Virginia, so often and so 
exultingly referred to, is misunderstood. In due time 
the facts on which this opinion is founded will be laid be- 
fore the public. 

(4.) Particularly of the members of the Colonization 
Societies ; whom I do not mean to offend by addressing 
them in this incidental and collateral way. I shall pay 
my respects to them openly and directly as soon as I have 
leisure. As that leisure may not soon arrive, they will 
pardon me for entreating them to examine attentively, 
in the mean time, the history of all the humane schemes 
that have been projected, from the era of Peter the Her- 
mit down to Mr. Wilberforce and the present day, and to 
say whether, in nine cases out of ten, these schemes have 
not either failed, or produced mischiefs unforeseen, or 
increased the very evil they were intended to relieve. I 
beg leave to assure them, that they will find the enquiry 
extremely interesting, and its result precisely such as I 
have suggested. 

I would respectfully entreat them also to bestow a few 
moments in considering whether the distinction which 
they are perpetually bringing into view, between the 
slave -holding states and the other states, is not calculat- 
ed to weaken the bond of union among them, and of 
course to impair the very source of our national strength 
and prosperity. 

I would entreat them further to consider whether the 
exclusion of the people of Missouri from an equality of 
rights with every other member of the Union, upon prin- 
ciples which our federative system must condemn, and 
which humanity has no cause to approve, is not an oc 



Gentlemen, grant me your patience ; I have 
yet much to say on this subject. You are right. 
" Nations are to be ranked according to their wis- 
dom and their virtue." This is most truly said ; 
and we, not meaning Virginians only, but the 
people of America, are willing to be measured 
and tried by the standard which you have your- 
selves erected. 

The sentiment expressed by the State of Vir- 
ginia, in the year 1772, in relation to the slave 
trade, was entertained by the great body of the 
American people. It is a fact, established by the 
public records of our country, that, on the 20th 
of October, 1774, almost within a little month, 
after the first meeting of a continental Congress, 
and nearly twenty months before the declaration 
of independence, it was expressly agreed, among 

currence fairly imputable to that spirit, sometimes in- 
deed pure, but often mixed ; sometimes really benevo- 
lent, but sometimes selfish, and sometimes puritanical - x 
which the institution and public proceedings of such so- 
cieties are calculated to cherish and promote. When I 
look at this question and its consequences, I must say that 
the axe is raised to strike at the root of our national hap- 
piness. If it descend, we are undone forever ! 

The ecclesiastical members of these societies, who, in- 
stead of confining themselves to their ministerial functions 
at home, go about, seeking, by their activity and zeal in 
public missions and agencies, a crown of worldly glory, 
are respectfully invited to consider whether their atten- 
tion ought not to be exclusively devoted to those serious 
duties, the performance of which leaves them no time to 
attend to secular concerns, even when they have been 
prepared for them, as they very seldom are, by prelimin- 
ary studies. What has been, invariably, the condition of 
mankind when they have had the direction of affairs ? I 
will not press this interrogation farther. My advice to 
them, offered in all humility, is, " touch not, taste not, 
handle not." This doctrine is emphatically inculcated by 
the constitution of Virginia, which declares all ministers 
of the gospel to be incapable of holding a seat in the le- 
gislature, or in the council. 



10 



many other stipulations, that the slave trade 
should be discontinued 

Now, let it be remembered, that the people ot 
America never acted in concert, by their repre- 
sentatives, until the month of September, 1774 : 
and, although the fate of the nation depended on 
the measures then to be taken for the preserva- 
tion of their rights and liberties, they yet had the 
" wisdom and the virtue" to snatch one anxious 
moment, and devote it to the abolition of the slave 
trade. While the first Congress of America, 
(such an assembly of men as the world never be- 
fore saw,) were thus employed, and, on your own 
principles, " wisely and virtuously" employed, 
what was the object which occupied, which en- 
grossed the time, the attention, and the councils, 
of your " great and humane country?" Was it not 
to maintain, by force, the power ol taxing, at dis- 
cretion, the land and labor of your own brethren, 
and to keep them in a state of absolute depend- 
ence and vassalage f An object Which, after tho 
loss of thousands of lives, and the expenditure of 
millions yet unpaid, and never to be paid, you 
have abandoned forever ! 

This point is susceptible of further illustration 
and proof. You very well know, I presume, that, 
as early as the year 1786, there was a convention 
of delegates at Annapolis, assembled for the pur- 
pose of amending the articles of our original con- 
federation. The result of its deliberations was, 
a recommendation to the several states, to send 
delegates to a grand convention in Philadelphia, 
for the purpose of rendering the Constitution of 
the federal government " adequate to the exigen- 
cies of the union." It is, no doubt, equally well 
known to you, that, in 1787, this grand convention 
did meet, and proposed to the people of Ameri- 
ca the constitution, by which the States are now 
united : a constitution which essentially changed 



11 

the character of the confederacy, and gave to the 
general government, at the expense of ihe States, 
the great powers which it now possesses. This 
grand movement was begun, continued, and end- 
ed, not indeed without the must animated dis- 
cussion, not without some portion of angry feel- 
ing, but without bloodshed, and indeed without vi- 
olence. 

If you were minutely acquainted with the past 
and present governments of this country, you 
would see at once the extent of the sacrifice made 
by the people of thirteen independent sovereign- 
ties, for the general good : a sacrifice produced, 
I will venture to say, by virtue and patriotism the 
most pure, and by wisdom the most profound. — 
Look, now, over the history of those nations, with 
the " least and lowest" of whom we are forbidden 
to compare ourselves, and point out to us, if you 
can, in the history of the greatest and the highest, 
one single occurrence, comparable to that now 
presented to your view — one which gives to a 
wnole people a claim so indisputable to those 
very qualities on which you say K the rank, of na- 
tions" is to depend. If there be any event, in 
point ot moral grandeur, equal to this, and in po- 
litical importance surpassing it, we can find it 
only in the History of America, in July, 1776. — 
Rest assured, therefore, Gentlemen, that we shall 
attend to your admonition. We will not com- 
pare ourselves with the " least, and lowest" of the 
European nations, nor even with the highest — 
we are not disposed to make any comparisons 
whatever, and " gasconading" as we may be, 
we are content to say little about others, and less 
about ourselves, except in defence of our cha- 
racter; whether as now, causelessly, or, as at o- 
ther times and by other persons, malignantly as- 
sailed. 

But the fact just stated was not introduced with a 



12 

view to the inference that has been drawn from it. 
The object was more immediately connected 
with the subject of the present discussion. The 
constitution itself, thus adopted by the people of 
America, contains an express provision, autho- 
rising the Congress of the U. States to prohibit the 
importation of slaves after the year 1807. Re- 
member that the establishment of this constitution 
was not the act of a Lycurgus, or a Solon, or of 
men selected like the Decemviri, to prepare a 
code of laws for a semi-barbarous nation. It was 
the act of the American people themselves, consti- 
tuting thirteen distinct sovereignties ; and each 
sovereignty, however small, deciding for itself. 
The principles are theirs ; the sentiments are 
theirs. And thus, by their voluntary and deli- 
berate act, and, let me add, as unanimous as it was 
deliberate, they have, in relation to themselves, 
extinguished the slave trade forever. (5) 

And let it be remembered that in this solemn 
expression of the feelings of this nation on this 
interesting subject, there was no parade, no os- 
tentation of humanity. We sent no political mis- 
sionaries abroad to boast of our virtues, or to 



(5.) It is well worthy of notice, if it be true, and it is 
believed to be true, that no objection was made among 
the people of the United States, from one end of the 
continent to the other, to the abolition of the slave trade. 
It appears, from the Federalist, No. 42, that the only ob- 
jections urged to the clause containing the provision 
abovementioned, were of a very different character. By 
some it was represented " as a criminal toleration, for a 
time, of an illicit traffic," and by others it was alleged 
to be " calculated to prevent voluntary and beneficial e- 
migrations to America." At this period, the clergy, the 
statesmen, and even the Reviewers of Europe, were si- 
lent on this subject. The question among us, "scourg- 
ers and murderers of slaves," was settled at once, with- 
out argument. In the land of " sense, science, and ge- 
nius," far beyond us too in humanity, the discussion was 
carried on, at different periods, for about 20 years ! 



13 

rouse the slumbering humanity of others. We 
made no treaties, in which we held up to the 
view of mankind our « greatness and humanity,'* 
and proved that we were engaged in the pious and 
holy effort to make others as humane as our- 
selves. Neither did we manifest any sordid ap* 
prehensions that other nations might monopolize 
the trade we meant to abjure. If in this we did 
not exhibit our ** wisdom and our virtue," we at 
least shewed some knowledge of the subject, and 
some respect for the characters and feelings of 
others. We knew the difficulties and embar- 
rassments always attending important changes, 
and we left it to other nations, in their wisdom and 
virtue, to judge for themselves, as we had judged 
for ourselves. Satisfied with having washed our 
own hands of this iniquity, we tried neither fiat- 
tery, nor persuasion, nor money, to induce oth- 
ers to follow our example, and thus cunningly 
secure for ourselves all the glory of the abolition. 
Adhering to the determination to abide by the 
criterion of national character which you have so 
justly chosen, I will take leave to state another 
important fact which occurred — mark, gentle- 
men — while the American people were yet with- 
out a rival, and pursued, with solitary fidelity, the 
course which their reflecting and cautious, and 
therefore real, humanity, prescribed. For, permit 
me here to remark to you that the humanity 
which feels only, and is always eloquent because 
it does feel, and dangerous because it is eloquent, 
is not the sentiment by which a nation or a man 
should be guided.T hat only is real humanity which 
reflects, deliberates, calculates, reasons ; moves 
towards its object with cautious steps and slow ; 
rejecting every scheme by which the mass of hu- 
man misery may be augmented, or by which a 
great and certain evil is to be encountered for the 
2 



14 

sake of a distant or contingent good In humani- 
ty of this sort there can be no mixture of folly, 
hypocrisy, vanity, ambition, or fanaticism ; but 
with the former all these instantly amalgamate. 

The fact alluded to is this : By an act of Con- 
gress, passed as early as March, 1794, a period 
at which the eyes of almost all mankind were ri- 
vetted on the sanguinary horrors exhibited in 
France, citizens of the United States, and all per- 
sons residents therein, were prohibited from fit- 
ting out vessels in the United States, for the pur- 
pose of carrying on traffic in slaves to any fo- 
reign country, or from one foreign country to an- 
other. 

By a supplemental act, passed in May, 1800, 
citizens and residents of the United States were 
prohibited, under heavy penalties, from holding 
any interest in vessels employed abroad in the 
slave trade. They were also prohibited from 
serving on board such vessels ; and, by the same 
act, the vessels described in the act of 1794 were 
made liable to seizure by any commissioned ves- 
sel ofthe United States. 

You have already been apprised that,on the 1st 
January, 1808, the power of Congress to prohibit 
the importation of slaves into those parts of the 
United States where such importation was yet 
tolerated, became complete. Why a day so dis- 
tant had been selected, it is not in my power to 
explain. As the principle of the prohibition ap- 
pears to have commanded universal assent, it is 
probable that a much shorter period would have 
been readily agreed to. However this may be, 
the Congress ofthe United States thought it their 
duty not to lose one single moment ; and, on the 
2d March, 1807, a law, to take effect on the 1st 
day of January, 1808, was passed, prohibiting the 
importation of slaves within the limits and juris- 
diction ofthe United States. This law, being du 



ly promulgated, went into operation., practically 
as well as theoretically, on the appointed day. 

Thus it appears that the government of the 
United States also has done all that it had power 
to do. 

It ought further to be stated, that, at a very 
early period after the revolution, the slave trade 
was, in fact, prohibited as to all the states north 
and east of Maryland, in consequence of their 
having adopted some plan of emancipation : a 
plan easily effected where the number of the 
slaves was so small, and where experience had 
proved that the climate did not suit them. But, 
in the southern states, where the number was 
great, and that number had naturally and rapidly 
increased, the difficulty was believed to be insur- 
mountable. The difficulty is insurmountable : 
and, to my apprehension, it is perfectly clear that 
there is no plan that can be adopted which will 
not produce a wider waste of ruin than could be 
viewed with composure, even by the enthusiast 
whose evil genius might bring it on our heads. 
Rely upon it, as an unqestionabie truth, that it is 
not at this moment in the power of human wis- 
dom to devise a plan for the gradual abolition of 
slavery which does not require for its completion 
a degree of virtue, philosophy, and moderation, 
among both whites and blacks, which it would 
be folly to anticipate. I have never seen yet but 
one (6) plan, and that required one hundred years 

(6.) I will not call the suggestions of a writer from 
Philadelphia, in the National Intelligencer, a plan. He 
talks of purchasing all the slaves in the United States, 
and estimates their price at 600 millions. This little 
item then is to be added to the expence of colonization, 
already estimated at £979,030,000— (see Niles's Regis- 
ter, October, 1817.) According to this writer's notion, 
the constitution is to be amended to enable Congress to 
impose a tax adequate to this glorious object — of emanci- 
pation only, I presume. With philanthropists nothing is 



16 



for its completion, and during that period the ex- 
istence of a race of men, both black and white, 
to be found only in the visions of Gaudentio Di 
Lucca. There is, indeed, no plan that can be 
devised, which will not bring, even upon those 
intended to be relieved, incalculable suffering. 
That the difficulties attending this subject are in- 
superable, seems to have been conceded by a 
committee of distinguished citizens appointed to 
revise the laws of Virginia. Mr. Jefferson, your 
quotation of whom will be hereafter noticed, was 
himself a member of the committee. A plan of 
emancipation was prepared ; but it was not re- 
ported to the Legislature. Of course, the com- 
mittee thought it ought not to be reported. Upon 
entering into the details, they saw that the scheme 
was utterly impracticable. That this was finally 
Mr. J's. opinion may be fairly inferred from his 
silence on the subject, from the time of the pub- 
lication of his Notes on Virginia to the present 

impossible ; no sacrifice too great. They will ruin one 
race in endeavoring to do good to another, without being 
sure that the good can be accomplished. They will car- 
ry blacks from Africa to South America, to relieve the 
Indians, without knowing how far the Indians will be be- 
nefitted. What, in truth, has been effected by the human- 
ity of Las Casas, or the perseverance of Wilberforce * 
And now the object is to carry the blacks back again to 
Africa ; an object utterly unattainable. The blacks will 
not go. If they were willing to go, we could not carry 
them. If we could carry them, we have not a foot of 
land to give them ; nor do I see the least prospect of 
procuring any. If we had land to give them, we have no 
assurance that they would not perish from the climate, 
or be destroyed or enslaved by the savage inhabitants of 
the country. 

Will the members of the Colonization Society take the 
trouble to read the report of a committee of the Ameri- 
can convention, on the subject of Colonization? It may 
be found in the Union Gazette, Philadelphia, of the 22d 
and 23d April, 1819. The plan is denied to be practica- 
ble, and condemned as inhuman, 



17 



day. The question, therefore, must be referred 
to time. In such a state of things, humanity may 
mourn, but it will mourn only. There are mo- 
ral as well as physical evils in this world, which 
no human agency can remove. You cannot wash 
the Ethiop white, nor can you impart to him the 
active intelligence of the homo sapiens Europae- 
us; and, in defiance of all the benevolent socie- 
ties of Europe and America, Africa will continue 
for ever to be what it has been for nearly six 
thousand years — the residence of slavery and bar- 
barism. Asia has been, through all past time, 
and will always continue to be, a vast theatre of 
despotism, ignorance, and superstition. The Arab 
of the desart now, is the Arab of the desart of the 
most ancient days to which our histories ascend. 
And whatever the speculations of agents and 
missionaries may suggest, the red man will for 
ever be a savage, if left to himself, and utterly 
stupid and worthless, when brought within the 
limits, and subjected to the restraints, of civilized 
society. i'7) 

In this conclusion, so far as it concerns Africa, 
I am confirmed by the " papers relating to the 
slave trade" presented in February last, (1819,) 

(7.) This opinion will not be readily adopted by those 
who get money as well as character, by devoting- them- 
selves to the service of the Indians. Delightful task ! " to 
rear the tender thought" of savages, &c. But facts ought 
sometimes to be regarded. What has become of the va- 
rious tribes of Indians established in different parts of 
the United States ? The Nottaway and Pamunkey tribes 
have almost entirely disappeared, without advancing one 
hair's breadth in civilization. I suspect that all the other 
tribes domesticated among us, have experienced a similar 
destiny.- (See Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia.) As to 
the condition of free blacks in a country belonging to 
white people, it will be hereafter particularly noticed. 
In the mean time, the reader is requested to turn his at- 
tention towards the states of Pennsylvania and New York, 
and to endeavor to ascertain what is their actual condi- 
tion there, and what are their principles and habits. 
2* 



18 

by order of the Prince Regent, to both houses of 
the British Parliament. It has been contended 
by many, that the civilization of Africa would be 
promoted, if the slave trade, on the western coast, 
could be abolished, I never thought so. I never 
thought that the civilization of Africa depended 
on the projected abolition of the slave trade. The 
experience of ages, before the European slave 
trade on the western coast began, (8) before the 
blind, and headlong, and fatal humanity of Las 
Casas,(9) excited by the sufferings of the Indians, 

(8.) I believe it to be certain that slaves were carried 
from the western coast of Africa to the east, centuries 
before the Europeans commenced their trade. The 
probability therefore is, if this trade could be abolished, 
that the same number of slaves would be sold in another 
direction, or, when prisoners of war, be put to death. 
Humanity, unless guided by the most extensive informa- 
tion, is a most wretched legislator. " If white men 
choose to remain at home," said the king of Dahomy to 
Mr. Abson, governor of Williams's fort, on the coast of 
Guinea, in 1766, " and no longer visit this country for 
the same purpose that has usually brought them hither, 
will black men cease to make war ? I answer, by no 
means. And if there be no ships to receive their cap- 
tives, what will become of them ? I answer for you ; 
they will be put to death." See Colonial Journal, No 2, 
July, 1816, p. 338. See also, in the same journal, the arti- 
cle immediately preceding, containing an account of R. 
Norris's journey, in 1772, to Abomey. The civilization 
of Africa ! what a splendid but puerile vision ! Might 
not some portion of the zealwhich it has inspired be well 
employed in humanizing those who massacre Jews, be- 
cause they are not christians, and protestants because 
they are not catholics ; who punish and degrade millions 
of catholics, because they are not protestants, and who, 
in open day, in profound peace, cut down to the earth 
their own fellow citizens, their own brethren, unarmed 
men, and even women, for no offence but discontent with 
perpetual labor and perpetual want ? Parke ought to 
know something on this subject. See his opinion, c. 22. 

(9.) Las Casas, a bishop, and a most active and perti- 
nacious philanthropist. I recommend his history to the 
attentive consideration of the whole corps of philanthro- 
pic schemers. Mr. Wilberforce's failure, as proved by 



19 

had prevailed on the Spanish monarch to relieve 
them, by the importation of negroes, seemed to 
me to have settled that point. Whether this 
opinion be correct or not is now immaterial. By 
these papers, it appears that this trade is still car- 
ried on. It is conducted, by the most desperate 
adventurers, in armed ships, with circumstances 
of more aggravated cruelty, with a more terrible 
devastation of human life, than were ever known 
before the period of Mr. Wilberforce's humane 
interposition. The documents referred to further 
prove, that this trade cannot be suppressed. The 
government of the United States cannot, and the 
great powers of Europe will not, consent to the 
rash and dangerous experiment by which alone, 
it is affirmed, the object can be accomplished. 
Mr. W. may weep, and Humanity will weep 
with him; but he must weep still more when he 
casts his eyes on the island of Barbadoes, and re- 
collects the awful catastrophe of St.Domingo.(lO) 

the documents, deserves also the most serious, the most 
solemn consideration. It is, indeed, an awful lesson to 
philanthropists. But what care they for lessons, though 
written in human blood, and read by the blazing" light of 
conflagrated cities ! 

(10) This, though true, may seem harsh. It is nothing*, 
however, when compared with what is said of him by 
a committee of the Assembly of Jamaica; wiiich I shall 
not repeat, not having possession at this moment of that 
No. of the Colonial Journal which contains their report 
— nothing, when compared with what was said to him, in 
the Parliament of Great Britain, by Mr. Barham, who 
denounced him, to his face, as the author of the insur- 
rection in Barbadoes, and brought, in horrible array, be- 
fore him, the slaughtered victims of his restless, misguid- 
ed humanity, and of their own ignorance and credulity. 
See Colonial Journal, July, 1816, p. 568. M. Desodoards, 
an eloquent historian of the French revolution, considers 
the introduction, by Mr. W. and others, of the question 
about slavery, as a snare set by the court of London for 
the French reformers, some of whom, constituting a so- 
ciety called (i Les Amies des Noirs," soon most philan- 
thropically effected the destruction of St. Domingo. 

Mr. Clarkson, the virtuous Clarkson, as he has been 



20 

Having thus furnished you with a brief and 
very imperfect sketch of the acts of the people 

called — and I have no objection to the epithet ; for men 
without power, civil or military, cannot do mischief on a 
grand scale, unless they are very good, or believed to be 
so — Mr. Clarkson seems to bring Mr. Wilberforce and 
this terrible event rather closer together than they are 
brought even by the French historian. Since writing 
the above note, I have cast my eye on his history. It ap- 
pears that, in 1789, when France was in the most com- 
bustible state, this same Mr. Clarkson was sent thither 
by the Abolition Society, then organized in England. 
Mr. Wilberforce was of opinion, says Clarkson, " that, as 
" commotions had taken place in France, which then aimed 
'< at political reform, it was possible that the leading per- 
*' sons concerned might, if an application to them were 
''judiciously made, be induced to take the slave trade 
" into consideration, and incorporate it among the abuses 
" to be done away.'* 

Clarkson went to France ; conversed with the mem- 
bers of the National Assembly ; exhibited his plates of 
slave ships ; excited, among a people already inflamed, 
the highest state of feeling; and had many interviews 
with the colored deputies of St. Domingo. These men 
came to put in their claim to liberty and equality. They 
were clamorous in consequence of the delays occasioned 
by the more important and pressing concerns of the 
French nation. Ogee, one of them, disgusted and re- 
sentful, returned home, and fell a victim to a premature 
effort to put the people of color on a footing with the 
whites of St. Domingo. The events which changed the 
destiny of that island soon followed ! Clarkson, amiable, 
no doubt, as well as virtuous, speaks of all these things 
as if he entertained no sort of suspicion that his mission 
had contributed to produce them, or that philanthropists 
were at all responsible for the miseries which they bring 
upon mankind. LasCasas, the philanthropist, the bishop, 
the author of negro slavery in South America, was proba- 
bly cheered in his last moments by the consolatory con- 
viction, that he had done all that he could do to rescue 
the Indians from slavery. 

The report of a committee of the House of Assembly 
of the Bahama Islands, agreed to Dec. 18, 1815, (see Co- 
lonial Journal, No. 2, p. 526,) contains the following re- 
mark: "About the year 1789, the British association 



21 



and governments of America on this subject, I 
appeal to your justice to revoke the sentence, so 
harshly pronounced, on the rank and character 
of this nation. 



" above mentioned furnished the prototype of that me- 
" morable institution in France, called « Les Amis des 
" Noire.' The difference of national temper constituted 
" the only distinction between the two. And a short re- 
" view of the conduct of the two societies, as a celebrated 
«' writer has observed, would serve, not only to lessen 
" the surprise which may have been felt at the revolt of 
" the negroes of St. Domingo, but raise a considerable 
" degree of astonishment that the enslaved negroes in 
" the British islands had not given them the example." 

I cannot say more of Mr. W. here. Those who can 
have access to the 2d No. of the Colonial Journal will 
not read the articles " Parliamentary Papers" and " Par- 
liamentary Proceedings" without astonishment, not un- 
mixed with regret. They will see evidence of the truth 
of a remark made by Mr. Barham, " that men become 
« so eager in pursuit of their object, that they do not al- 
" low themselves to reflect a moment as to the means 
** they would employ." The Registry Bill, according to 
Mr. B. contained a clause " by which the owner of an 
" estate is bound to give orders that, without tenderness 
" for youth, without respect for age, every female on 
" his property should be stripped by the overseer and 
" book-keepers, in order that even the most secret mark 
" or peculiarity which appears on her body may be dis- 
" covered and recorded." With no less feeling than 
firmness, Mr. B. avers, that no power on earth should 
compel him to issue such an order ! This denudation, I 
understand, extended to the whole black population of 
the islands, male as well as female, and was to be trienn - 
ally performed ! And this bill was brought forward b y 
Mr. W. under the auspices of the African institution ! 
And this is the man who lectures nations about humanity 
to the blacks ! — a man whose zeal so far outstrips his 
judgment, that even his friend Lord Castlereagh was 
obliged in that debate to make this terrible concession : 
" It is evident that the recent calamities (at Barbadoes) 
had grown out of a perversion of the meaning of the 
Registry Bill which no rational man could have enter- 
tained." Are the negroes in the West Indies the only 
negroes in the world who may misunderstand the cha- 
racter of a measure in which they are concerned ? Will 



22 



If the considerations already urged are deemed 
insufficient for that purpose, there are others re- 
lating to U s, to you, and to the Christian world, 
whose influence it will be difficult to resist. 

I have already laid before you one fact winch 
distinguishes the people of America from all the 
people of modern, and indeed of ancient, Europe, 
and gives them a high claim to respect for wis- 
dom and for virtue. The great national act to 
which I allude, was preceded by the revolution ; 
of our conduct in which, history has sajd enough; 
and by the adoption, on the part of thirteen sepa- 
rate states, of forms of government, in every in- 
stance embracing principles of civil and religious 
liberty, which few of your philosophers have ad- 
vocated, and none of your statesmen have prac- 
tised. These principles have been transfused 
into the constitution of the United States, by 
which the government is expressly prohibited 
from granting titles of nobility, and from making 
any law respecting the establishment of religion, 
or impairing, in any degree,the freedom ofspeech 
or of the press. Religious persecution, which has 
filled Europe for centuries, and down to this very 
moment, with terror, and crimes, and blood, is in 
this country extinguished forever : and the first 
movement of usurpation, or of factious opposi- 
tion, is announced by the press, in every form of 
reprobation, to every inhabitant of the Union. — 
Are these things of no value in the estimate of the 
character of nations ? Was there ever a country, 
except our own, in which the Chief Magistrate 
speaks, exultingly, of that manly and independent 
spirit, which the people display, and without 



nothing' convince gentlemen that " this is a sore part of 
our system, the handling of which serves only to irri- 
tate, and not to cure ?" I ask the members of the Colo- 
nization society, if they do not now know that the object 
of their association is misunderstood by the negroes ? 



23 

which, no institutions, however pure in their prin 
ciples, can be long sustained? 

I am, in truth, but little disposed to say much 
©f my countrymen. Let their deeds speak for 
thera. But I will not forego the satisfaction of 
stating a circumstance which, though perhaps 
known to you, is not generally known. After 
the revolutionary war, the states, whose territory 
extended far into the western country, and, in 
some instances, to the Pacific Ocean, made a vo- 
luntary surrender to the general government, for 
the general good, of millions of acres of valuable 
land, now the residence of millions of brave and 
intelligent men, and destined to be the residence 
of countless millions more. This surrender, you 
will permit me to remind you, was made princi- 
pally by the slave-holding states. Is there nothing 
in this which indicates wisdom and magnanimi- 
ty of the highest order ? 

I know full well that where wisdom and virtue 
are, humanity will be with them. But I cannot 
agree that the character of my countrymen, for 
humanity, strongly impeached as it is by you, 
shall rest on the rectitude of this proposition. I 
trust, therefore, that you will not charge me with 
" gasconading," when I say, that, during the late 
war, our land and naval forces displayed a degree 
of humanity which, if possible, surpassed their 
bravery. During the whole course cf the war, 
not one act of cruelty was performed, and " the 
high feeling and humanity" of the American 
troops are attested, not only by Mr. Hall, whom 
you quote, but by many of your captive and 
wounded countrymen, who did honor to them- 
selves, by their public and reiterated acknow- 
ledgments. Of the conduct of your troops, and 
of the barbarian order under which they acted on 
the Potomac, I say nothing. Are they not writ- 
ten in the "Exposition of the causes & character 



24 



of the War," of which, from policy or from abet- 
ter motive, no notice has yet been taken on your 
side of the Atlantic? 

Gentlemen : I have quoted your own words, 
with respect to the American troops. Did it not 
occur to you, that men who obtained such praises 
in the midst of war, from those whom they had 
met in battle, ought not to be stigmatised with the 
horrible epithets which you have thought proper 
to use ? I trust it will occur to you now, and that, 
anxious as you profess to be, and no doubt really 
are, to lessen the l hatred and contempt which 
race feels for race," you will retract, even in the 
splendor of your literary fame, both with pleasure 
and promptitude, the ignominious language, 
which pardon me if I say I had infinitely rather 
hear than use. 

If, then slavery was not instituted by us; if 
emancipation has been effected by us, as far as it 
could be effected, without ruin both to the master 
and the slave : if the importation of slaves has 
been prohibited, and the slave trade itself sup- 
pressed, by every measure which the people 
could adopt, for the acts of the government here 
are the acts of the people : and if all this was 
done- while the humanity of Europe still conti- 
nued its third century of sleep, may we not ven- 
ture to creep along side of those European na- 
tions, at least, who have adopted no such mea- 
sures, and who still carry on the slave trade? 
Would it be deemed too presumptuous in us to 
compare ourselves, if we chose to engage in a bu- 
siness no less really than proverbially odious, with 
those nations, powerful as they are, where the 
great body of the people are born, and live, and 
die in slavery : and might we not be forgiven, 
even if we were to claim an equal rank with any 
nation on earth which tolerates negro slavery, and 
of course with yours ? 



'25 

But, gentlemen, there are considerations relat- 
ing to yourselves, which might have occurred to 
you, and indeed would have occurred to you, if 
power in its plenitude, even literary power, did 
not often forget right. 

In the Augustan age of Queen Anne, enlight- 
ened by the labors of philosophers, statesmen, 
lawyers, poets, and divines, who have not been 
surpassed, perhaps not equalled, by their succes- 
sors, the treaty of Utrecht was concluded. This 
treaty was immediately followed by the Assiento 
Contract, adjusted in May, 1713, between their 
Britannic and Catholic Majesties. Did you for- 
get that this contract had been made ? or did you 
suppose that others, goaded by your reproaches, 
would not remember it, and tell you, in the face 
of God and man, that if they must perish, you 
are not to cast the first stone : that they must not 
die by your hands. What ! after your purchas- 
ing and paying money for the privilege of carry- 
ing from Africa to the Spanish possessions in 
South America, 4.800 slaves every year, for thir- 
ty years, in all 144,000 slaves, with the addi- 
tional privilege of carrying, during the first 
twenty-five years, as many as you pleased, 
for an extra premium to his Catholic Majes- 
ty, we, who set the first example of humanity 
to your " great and humane country," and to 
those nations of Europe before the least and low- 
est of whom we are to bow down, with conscious 
inferiority ; we are to be stigmatised as « scourg- 
ers and murderers of slaves," because we have 
not humanity enough to turn out the negroes 
born in our families, to perish from hunger, or to 
live by crime! I have no remark to make on 
this contract. None is necessary It speaks 
for itself, and in a voice of thunder : appalling 
the heart of every Briton, and of every European 
3 



26 

too, who ventures to impeach the humanity of A- 
mericans. (11) 

Of the smuggling, in violation of the colonial 
regulations of Spain, to which that traffic led ; of 
the detection which took place, and the revenge 
which followed; of the war to which that revenge 
gave rise; of the millions of money squandered, 
and of the thousands of lives ingloriously lost, I 
have nothing to say, except that much would have 
been saved to humanity, at least, if the cry of "no 
search," then uttered by the parliament, and echo- 
ed by the people, had been, at a late period, per- 
mitted by your "greatness," to be the cry of 
others as well as of yourselves. 

Gentlemen: while you were uttering these terri- 
ble denunciations against my " high-minded and 
gallant countrymen," did you lose ah recollection 
of the existence of slavery within the dominions 
of Great Britain ? in the West India islands, 
under the legislative control of Great Britain as 
you yourselves contend, and certainly in her pow- 
er, slavery exists in a form quite as repulsive as 
in any section of the United Slates. But hitherto 
no attempt at emancipation has been made in 
parliament. The busy zeal of some society in 
London, whose name 1 forget, and shall not take 
the trouble to look for, has, 1 believe, rashly, and 
I will add, inhumanly, glanced thai way. But in 
parliament no effort has been made to efface this 
« foul ' blot on the character of your country ; to 
suppress this '* atrocious crime 1" and why has 
not this been done ? Parliament knew better. 
They had too much understanding, and, I will 
add, too much humanity. They knew that the 
object could not be accomplished, without pro- 
ducing horrors which no human being could de- 
scribe, or even conceive, except one who had 

(11) The contract states that the privilege of the 
French had just expired. 



27 

seen and survived those of St. Domingo. In 
truth, it may fairly be inferred, from the unanimi- 
ty of the vote given in support of Mr. Palmer's 
motion, (12) and from the very strong language 
of the Minister, that "so wild a measure as the 
general emancipation of slaves," "a measure that 
would visit the heaviest calamities on the heads of 
those unfortunate slaves themselves," could " ne- 
ver be sanctioned by the government of that 
country." 

Permit me farther to remind you, that, in May, 
1811, the crown of Great Britain was the owner, 
in the wretched island of Berbice, of estates on 
which there were 79 1 negro slaves; which es- 
tates and slaves, after an abortive effort to rent 
and hire them out, were put under the care of 
commissioners, to manage for the benefit of the 
crown.(lS) This property, I am told, is at this 
moment owned by the crown. How the fact is. I 
know not, nor is it very material that I should 
know. It is enough that the parliament of G. Bri- 
tain tolerates slavery in the West Indies ; that the 
crown of G. Britain is, or was very recently, the 
owner of slaves in Berbice. This, I say, is enough; 
not indeed to vindicate us : the people of this 
country would scorn an advocate who, in a ques- 
tion of morality, should rest their vindication on 
theconduct of any.nation whatever; but to author- 
ize us to demand of you, that you now, to evince 
your sincerity and good faith, turn round, face 
your own government, and denounce that go- 
vernment before the world, for its unprincipled 

(12) Mr. Palmer moved to strike out all but the formal 
part of Mr. Wilberforce's motion, and to amend it by an 
address to the Prince Regent, calling upon him to' ex- 
press his highest displeasure at the insurrection in Bar- 
badoes, &c. &c. This motion was most ably, and forci- 
bly, and dispassionately supported by Mr Barham. His 
speech is a model of argumentative eloquence. 

(13) See Colonial Journal, No. 5. 



28 

toleration of so « atrocious a crime. M If your 
failure hitherto to pursue this course, is to be as- 
cribed to a conviction, that the toleration of slav- 
ery was a less evil than any scheme of abolition, 
ought you not, in common candor, to have sup- 
posed that our situation might be as embarrass- 
ing and difficult as that of your own government 
and country, and that we too might in like man- 
ner be excused ? To hear, before condemnation, 
is an essential duty, which even literary judges 
are bound to perform. 

You see that the defence hitherto made is en- 
tirely unconnected with the question concerning 
the legitimacy of the state of slavery We have 
excused ourselves by showing that the introduc- 
tion of slavery into this country was not our act, 
and that its continuance now is a matter of neces- 
sity, and not of choice: but, in the language of 
the bar, we have never put in the plea of justifi- 
cation. We have never said, that, by the princi- 
ples of natural law, or the precepts of revealed 
religion, slavery was a legitimate state of human 
existence. But of those principles and precepts, 
as they are expounded to us, it is now my duty to 
avail myself. We have been denounced, before 
all the nations of the earth, as " the least and low- 
est in rank and character ;" as « the scourgers 
and murderers of slaves," because we tolerate 
slavery which we cannot remove, and which your 
government has not attempted to remove. An 
anathema has been issued, calculated to injure 
and degrade us in the eyes of all mankind, and, 
what is still worse, even in our own. I cannot, 
therefore, without being in some degree accessa- 
ry 'to the injustice which I am endeavoring to ex- 
pose, without being an abettor of the calumny of 
which I complain, without, in truth, betraying 
the cause in which I have become a voluntary ad- 
vocate, pretermit any point of defence which law 



29 

or religion authorizes me to use. In this course 
of proceeding, I act under an entire conviction 
that I shall not do the smallest injury to the peo- 
ple of color. The era of their emancipation will 
arrive whenever the white people are convinced 
that the scheme proposed is practicable, and that 
it will not, in its progress or after its completion, 
do more harm than good to the blacks them- 
selves. When that time shall arrive, the consti- 
tutional difficulties will be removed, and the plan 
proposed will be adopted, provided it brings up- 
on the white people no other evil than that aris- 
ing from a mere loss of property, though this 
will be a greater sacrifice than ever was made, or 
required from any nation of the earth. The era 
will arrive then, and not before. It ought not to 
arrive before. In pursuing the course now mark- 
ed out, I beg that it may be understood, that I 
am not giving — at least it is not my object to give 

my own opinions. They are of no consequence 

whatever. I only quote the law and the gospel 
as I find them. If they shall render the zealous 
more cautious, more considerate; the humane 
less indignant and fierce ; and convince both that 
all wisdom, and understanding, and virtue, are 
not confined to themselves, but have been in some 
degree possessed by other persons at other times,& 
byother persons even atthis time, I shall be content. 
In relation to the law of nature, which is i.o- 
thing more than right reason and justice, inde- 
pendent of municipal law, applied to individuals, 
a very few words will be sufficient. The question 
has been discussed by Grotius, PufTendorf, Hob- 
bes, and their successors, particularly Paley,who, 
as well as Grotius, distinguished himself in the 
cause of Christianity. It is the opinion of these 
jurists and divines, that slavery may be justified 
on principles of natural law A little volume 
would be required to comprise all the rca- 



30 

zoning on this subject. I content myself, 
therefore, with a bare statement of the -fact, and 
with this remark, that Grotius and his success- 
ors have been invariably considered as orthodox 
expounders of the law of nature and nations. Gro- 
tius himself has been regarded as the legislator 
of Europe. His writings are quoted in all fo- 
rensic and diplomatic discussion, with the high- 
est respect, and his name is never pronounced 
but with veneration. Yet Grotius, who justifies 
slavery, is upheld and supported by universal ap- 
probation? while we, who do not justify it, but 
merely tolerate it, to avoid a greater evil, are 
loaded with the bitterest execrations. There is 
no justice, nor candor, nor fair dealing, in such 
a procedure.(14) 

There is another view of this subject which 
merits the serious consideration of all those who 
advocate the abolition of slavery. This view will 
teach them at once the propriety of avoiding epi- 
thets and denunciations which eloquence in its 
wrath scatters abroad, without knowing, perhaps 
without caring, on whom or what they may fall. 

Of the slavery which the Supreme Being has 
permitted, through all time, to exist, in Asia, and 
Africa, and, at this very moment, in a great part 



(14) It is worthy of notice, that all those who advo- 
cate a scheme of emancipation, concede, without appear- 
ing to be aware of the fact, one of the positions on which 
the writers on natural law place the legitimacy of slavery. 
The scheme noticed in this letter, and that of Lord Mel- 
ville in 1792, conceded that masters or owners have a. 
right to be indemnified for the trouble and expense of 
maintaining the offspring of slaves, by the labor of this 
offspring. If this right be admitted, the question is set- 
tled. A new question may be made ; but it must refer, 
not to the existence, but to the extent of the right. This, 
however, is but a small matter, discernible by the eye 
of reason only. And who will resort to reason on such 
a subject, when eloquence answers the purpose so much 
better. 



o I 

of Europe also, I say nothing. I draw no infer- 
ence from it, in extenuation of our " atrocious 
crime," in holding slaves, whose emancipation 
would be ruinous no less to themselves than to 
their owners. Nor will I avail myself of the fact, 
that the patriarch Abraham, to whom the Bible 
records a promise from heaven, " that in his seed 
should all the nations of the earth be blessed," 
was the proprietor at one time of three hundred 
servants, all born in his own house :( 15) nor of 
the fact, that his son Isaac was not deemed un- 
worthy of the special favor of the Supreme Being, 
although he also had "great store of servants." 
All these things may be passed by. The Jewish 
code of laws, proceeding, as we are taught to be- 
lieve, immediately from God himself, authorizes 
slavery among his chosen people; points out dis- 
tinctly the mode in which a freeman, loving his 
wife and children, who are slaves, may himself 
become a slave for ever ;( 16) and expressly au- 
thorizes the Jews to purchase the children of the 
strangers that sojourn among them, to be bonds- 
men for ever, and to be an inheritance for their 
children.(17) 

All this we find laid down, in plain words, in 
the book which the Christians of both Europe and 
America are distributing among the inhabitants 
of the most distant regions of the earth; a book, 
which all Christians believe to be the work of in- 
spiration — to proceed immediately from €rod him- 
self. I know full well, that Bishops and editors 

(15) Gen. c. 14, v. 14. 

(16) Exod. c. 21. v. 6, 7, fee, 

(17) Levit. c. 25, v. 45, 46, fec- 
it may not be amiss to remark, that in the bible, the 

Hebrew word, meaning slave, is always translated "ser- 
vant." Encyclo. title Slavery. This, however, is be- 
lieved to be sufficiently evident from the text. The notes 
to the 25 c. Levit. in Dr. Hewlett's edition of the Bible 
put this matter beyond doubt. 



32 

of the Bible, as well as philosophers, have, of late, 
indulged themselves in pointing ou-. certain parts 
of that book, which a pious Christian is not bound 
to believe. The exact quantity which a believer 
is not required to believe; the precise latitude 
within which Christian scepticism may range 
without censure, I have not taken the trouble to 
ascertain. But, of this there can be no doubt, 
that the Pentateuch must be abandoned as an ab- 
solute imposture, if the law authorizing slavery is 
not of divine original. 

Gentlemen, I address not myself to you parti- 
cularly ; you have never published your confes- 
sion of faith : and God forbid that I should inso- 
lently and impiously interpose between your Cre- 
ator and your conscience, by any species of inter- 
rogation on the subject. But to him, who, from 
the house-top. proclaims his religious opinions 
to the world, and conscientiously believes that he 
is performing a duty to God and a service to man, 
by diffusing the Scriptures throughout the earth, 
and, at the same time, speaks of domestic slave- 
ry as " an atrocious crime," the " consummation 
of all wickedness;'' to him I say, and I am autho- 
rized to say, " He^tfvat reproveth God, let him an- 
swer it." Wilt thou disannul his judgment? 
« Wilt thou condemn him, that thou mayest be 
righteous?" " Where wert thou, when he laid 
the foundations of the earth, and to whom hath the 
root of #isdom been revealed ?" Of him whose 
pride, (alas 1 we take pride in every thing, even 
in our religion) — whose pride it is to be a chris- 
tian, and whose glory it is to aid in diffusing the 
Scriptures among all nations ; I ask, how he can 
exculpate himself from the charge of blasphemy 
against the Most High, when he calls domestic 
slavery, whether by compact or by birth, the 
« consummation of all wickedness ?" 



S3 

I will call to your recollection another circum- 
stance, which all of yon perhaps, one of you cer- 
tainly, will deem worthy of serious consideration. 
Bishop Newton, in his Dissertation on the Pro- 
phecies, urges the present ana the past condition 
of the Africans as a fulfilment of a prophecy, and 
evidence, of course, of the divine authority of the 
bible. Noah, in his prophetic wrath, had said, 
" Cursed be Canaan : a serv nt of servants shall 
he be unto his brethren ; and blessed be the Lord 
God ot Shorn, and Canaan shall be his servant. 
God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in 
the tents of Shem : and Canaan shall be his ser- 
vant." Now, the Africans, the Bishop under- 
takes to shew, are the descendants of Canaan, and 
their slavery is an accomplishment of Noah's 
prediction. If this was really a prophecy, divine- 
ly inspired, the present condition of the Africans 
is inevitable : all efforts to extinguish black slave- 
ry are idle, and the " phial of your wrath, pour- 
ed on our devoted heads, is poured in vain." 

This is not all. At the time when the chris- 
tian religion was first preached among mankind, 
slavery existed, and had long existed, not only in 
Judea, but in Greece and Rome, and in every 
part of the world then known. Among the Jews 
the law of Moses was yet in force. Of this law 
concerning slavery, no direct notice is taken by 
the founder of the christian religion. As to the 
practice under it, he is equally silent. But he 
" came not to destroy the law or the prophets, 
but to fulfil."(19.)Henot only does not condemn 
slavery, but actually gives to it a sort of sanction, 
by borrowing from that state, in its most tremen- 
dous form, an illustration of his parables. The 
kingdom of heaven itself is likened « to a certain 
king, who would take an account of his servants ; 
and forasmuch as one of them " had not to pay?'* 

(19 .) Matt. 5,17, 



34 

his lord commanded « him to be sold, and his 
wife and children," and all that he had, and pay- 
ment to be made. The servant, having fallen 
down and " worshipped'* his master, was releas- 
ed ; but, being accused of harshness to another 
servant, he was " delivered over to the torment- 
ors."(20.) The kingdom of heav en is again com- 
pared to a master travelling into a far country, 
and who on his return directs the servant who 
had buried his talent, to be cast into utter dark- 
ness. A third illustration, equally grave and so- 
lemn, is taken from the return of a master, whose 
servant, knowing his lord's will, prepared not 
himself, neither did according to his will, and 
is "beaten with many stripes." On all these 
things I make one remark only ; it is this : if do- 
mestic slavery had been deemed by Jesus Christ 
the atrocious crime which it is now represented 
to be, could it have been passed over without cen- 
sure ? Would the doctrines of salvation have 
been illustrated by a reference to it, direct and 
unequivocal ? Should we not have been told, not 
that the rich man, but that the slave holder, 
could not enter the kingdom of heaven ? 

Let it be remembered, too, that Paul preached 
among the Gentiles, particularly among the 
Greeks and Romans. He could not have been 
ignorant of the condition of slaves among the lat- 
ter. He must have seen the ergastula in which 
slaves were confined, and the porter chained to 
the gate of his Roman master. Yet, instead of 
denouncing the toleration of slavery as a crime, 
he and Peter both exhort servants to be " obedi- 
ent to their masters, with fear and trembling ;" 
" to please them in all things, not answering 
again ;" not purloining, but " shewing all good 

(20.) Hewlett : note on Matt. c. 18, v. 34.— Torment- 
ors : *« Persons who officiated as jailors, and inflicted 
corporal punishment." 



35 

fidelity, not only to the good and gentle, but to 
the frovvard ; for what glory is it to them, if when 
buffetted for their faults, they take it patiently ; 
but if they do well, and suffer for it, and take it 
patiently, this is acceptable to God. "(21.) 1 he 
references will shew that these quotations are 
principally made from the writings ol St. Paul ; 
who, not content with prescribing the duty of ser- 
vants, goes on to admonish his followers against 
those who, being anxious to be thought righteous 
over much, might inculcate a different doctrine. 
" If any man teach otherwise, says the Apostle, 
(Epist. to Tim, c. 6, v. 3,) and consent not to 
wholesome words, even the words ol our Lord Je- 
sus Christ, and to the doctrine which i* accord- 
ing to Godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, 
but doting about questions and strifes of words, 
whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, even sur- 
misings," &c. 

The practice of St. Paul on this subject cor- 
responded with his precepts. The Lpistle to 
Philemon is nothing more than an intercession in 
behalf of Onesimus, a fugitive slave,who had pro- 
bably run away from his master, to listen to the 
eloquence of the Apostie, by whom he was con- 
verted. (22.) 

(21.) Epist. to the Ephesians, c. 6. 
to the Coliossians, c. 3. 
to Timothy, c. 6. 

to Titus, " c. 2. 

to Philemon, 
1st Epist. of Peter, c. 2. 

(22.) Dr Hewlett, in bis splendid edition of the bible, 
makes a remark on this epistle, which, with the conduct 
of .he Apostle, may be deemed by some persons worthy 
of a little serious reflection, because it must produce a 
little pairvul retrospection. « Convinced of his fault, 
* perhaps, says Dr. Hewlett, by St. Paul himself, he was 
'desirous of atoning for it by returning to his master; 
' but, dreading the arbitrary punishment which the laxv al- 
' lowed masters to injiict on fugitive slaves, he requested 



It will be perceived that the Apostles did not 
confine their admonitions to the slaves only ; on 
the contrary, they require masters to be kind to 
their servants, as their master also is in heaven, 
with whom there is no respect of persons. 

Thus we see that the subject of slavery was 
distinctly within the view, and under the consid- 
eration of the two most eminent Apostles; and 
that so far from requiring masters to emancipate 
their slaves, as an evidence of their conversion 
and faith, they unequivocally recommend and en- 
join patience and submission on one side, and 
kindness on the other. 

Is not this enough ? What! do the christians 
of the present day pretend to be wiser than God 
Almighty — more merciful than Christ — more 
humane, more pious, more conscientious, more 
moral, than the Apostles ! Let them beware ! 
Let them not consider their erring humanity as a 



* the holy Apostle to intercede for him, by writing to 
« his master, requesting his forgiveness, and that hs pen- 

* itent slave might be again received into his household. " 
Pliny says Dr. H. is supposed to havewritten a letter, on 
a similar occasion — lib. 9. epist. 21. I have not access 
at this moment, to his works. It is not, however, mate- 
rial. There are people in — and in — and in,&,c. and very 
pious people, too, who never heard of Pliny, and act, in 
relation to runaway slaves, as if they had never heard of 
St. Paul, though his name is probably mentioned at every 
meeting, if it be not a silent meeting 

Dr. Hewlett, whose notes, collected from every ortho- 
dox source, to explain and illustrate the text of his edi- 
tion of the bible, (published in London, 1811,) has the fol- 
lowing note on 1 Tim. c. 6, v. 1 : "By ordering Timothy 

* to teach slaves to continue with and obey their masters, 
' the apostle shews that the christian religion neither al- 
« ters men's rank in life, nor abolishes any right to winch 

* they are entitled by the law of nature or by the law of 
1 the" country where they live." 



37 

better guide than their religion ! « Professing 
to be wise, let them not become fools !"(23) 

I do not introduce these quotations from the 
Old Testament and the New, with a view to jus- 
tify slavery. Whether they do justify it or not, 

(23.) How far the doctrines and laws promulgated in 
the Old Testament, are to be regarded as an authentic 
exposition, among all christians, of the aw of nature, I 
shall not undertake to decide ; but some very good ai*d 
very able men have 'decided. 

Grotms, in the preliminary discourse to his great 
work, giving an account of the various sources from 
which he derived his principles and opinions, expressly 
declares that the will of God, as expressed in the sacred 
writings, is never repugnant to the law of nature itself 
— sec. 49. 

He was so tenacious of principles inculcated by those 
writings that, because the Jews were prohibited fiom 
fending money on interest to Jews, he contended that 
christians ought not to lend money upon interest at all. 
He published this opinion in his book ; but he after- 
wards abandoned it, as the Jews were permitted so to 
lend to strangers. 

Book 1. c. 1, sec 17, he says— « The law of the an- 

* cient Hebrews serves to assure us that nothing is en* 

* joined there, contrary to the law of nature ; for, since 

* the law of nature, as I said before, is perpetual and un- 
« changeable, nothing could be commanded by Gcd, who 
« can never be unjust, contrary to this law. Besides 

« the law of Moses is called pure and right, (Psalm J0, 8^j 

* and by the apostle St. Paul holy, just, and good."-! 
Rom. 7, 12. 

In speaking of permissions allowed by the law of Mo- 
ses, he distinctly maintains that what the law allows, can- 
not be contrary to the right of nature. 

He further states, " That christian princes may now 
make laws of the same import with those given by Mo- 
« ses, unless they be such laws as wholly related either 

* to the time of the expected Messias and the gospel not 

* then published, or that Christ himself has in general, or 
« in particular, commanded the contrary. For, except- 
« ing these three reasons, no o:her can be imagined, why 
' that which the law of Moses formerly established, should 

* now be unlawful." 

A 



38 

let every reader decide for himself. But there is 
one result which I confidently anticipate. In the 
judgment of every man who is,or pretends to be,a 
christian, these quotations will be at least suffi- 

llarbeyrac (note 3 to 17 sect, book 1, c. 1,) discusses 
the subjec:. The following' propositions are deduced 
from his reasoning- : 

1. That all positive permissions from God are certain 
proof of approbation. 

2. That God cannot positively permit the least thing- 
evil in its own nature. 

3. That when God permits a thing in certain cases 
and to certain p< rsons, or in regard to certain nations, 
it may be inferred that the thing permitted is not evil m 
its own nature, ^c. 

1 do not quote the opinion of these men as authority. 
The opinion of man is not authority. 1 only mean to 
suggest that, as the Old Testament expressly authorizes 
slavery ; as the New does not condemn it, and, on the 
contrary., expressly inakes it the duty of servants to obey 
their masters ; and as some very wise and pious men 
have thought that nothing 1 authorized by the Scriptures 
can be regarded as immoral or unjust; there would be 
no impropne'v on the part of the reformers and aboli- 
tionists, in talking with a little more humility on this 
subject ; in looking about a little to see where their cur- 
ses and denunciations are likely to fall; in looking for- 
ward a little to explore the path they must take, and to 
ftscertain whether any thingsacred will be injured or re- 
moved ; whether any thing valuable must be sacriliced, 
and to estimate accurately the good that may confidently 
be expected; and finally in enquiring, before sentence 
of condemnation and infamy is pronounced on a high- 
minded and generous people for holding slaves, how 
they obtained them, and whether they can now get clear 
of them, without producing more evil than good. 

1 will only add in this place that, having reflected on 
this subject at various times, during many years, I never 
did doubt but that aman, living in a country where slave- 
ry existed, might hold a slave without any breach of a 
moral or religious dutv. This was the question present- 
ed to me bv the actual condition of the country, and 
such was my decision. I have no doubt about it now ; 
and lam equally clear, that he who sets free his negroes 
in a ccuntrv where there are slaves, without prowding 



39 

cient to exempt a people who hold as slaves, those 
whom they found slaves, and who lament that they 
do hold them, from the curses and bitter denun- 
ciations which have been of late heaped upon 
their heads. Nor have I discussed the question 
concerning the legitimacy of slavery on princi- 
pics of natural law. I have barely referred to ihe 
opinions of others ; of men of whom some were 
distinguished as well for their piety as their learn- 
ing I have hazarded no opinion of my own. I 
am a participator in that crime " with which no 
measures are to be kept ;" but though thus put 
" hors la loi," 1 will venture merely to ask the 
philanthropist to descend for a moment to the 
earth, to look into the condition of Africa and 
China, as it rtally exists, and then to decide 
whether, in some cases at least, the substitution 
of slaver) for death may not be authorized, on 
principles of the purest and most enlightened hu- 
manity. (24.) Of these questions 1 have abstain- 
ed from the discussion. 1 thought it sufficient 
for my purpose to exhibit a transient view of doc- 
trines and principles which hitherto have claimed 
and possessed some influence among men. The 
real question with us is— ^can the state of things 
of which you so loudly complain, be changed ? I 
have already said that k cannot. I repeat that it 
cannot. It is very easy to declaim ; it is very 
amusing to be eloquent ; and it is certainly very 
pleasant, as well as politic, to be humane, especi- 
ally when it costs us nothing, and procures for us 
distinction as well as profit. But what is sport to 
one may be death, literally death, to thousands of 
others. This sport,tnen,is worsethan foolish; k he 

the means of their going to some other country, where 
they can be received, does an injury to society 
which he ought not to do,and which society ought to pre- 
vent. Such also is the opinion of the legislatures of Geor- 
gia and Virginia. 

(24 ) See Malthas and Parke particularly. 



40 



who at this day, and in this country," in speaking 
of slavery talks of stains, without shewing how 
they can be effaced ; of crimes, without shewing 
how they can be suppressed ; of wickedness, 
without shewing how it can be avoided ; does a 
wrong, which it is liberal to impute to imbecility 
of intellect. Gentlemen, this remark is not made 
for you ; you know not our situation : you know 
but little of our constitution and our laws, and 
are therefore orly<liable to the imputation of te- 
merity, in speaking on a subject which you do 
not understand. Hear me then for a moment, 
while I explain to you the reason of my affirma- 
tion — that no scheme of emancipation can, in the 
present state of things, be realized. Slaves, by 
our laws, are property ; and therefore, on the 
principles of our constitution, cannot be set free 
by a legislative act. The property of a citizen 
cannot be taken from him without an equivalent; 
and even then only for public use. Emancipation 
therefore, must be the act of the individual own- 
ers. In. this way it has commenced ; and already 
there is a deep conviction, founded on woeful ex- 
perience, of the enormous evils which it must 
produce. In Georgia the privilege is taken away. 
The other states must follow the example, or 
strictly enforce the condition, which requires 
their departure from the country. A simultane- 
ous movement on this subject from so many thou- 
sands of owners, cannot be expected ; and if it 
were to take place, the country would exhibit no- 
thing but one wide scene of misery and death. (25) 



(25.) Since writing the above I have seen the National 
Intelligencer, 28th July, 1819. A writer, who has before 
signalized his zeal on this subject, concedes, without 
having yet experienced any opposition, that any scheme 
by a legislative act, for the emancipation of the slaves 
now in existence, " does really appear hopeless." It 



41 

Before I take leave of this part of the subject, 
you will permit me to suggest to you that one of 
the laws of South Carolina, referred to by you, 
ought not to have excited in your minds the in- 
dignation which you have thought proper to ex- 
press. The murderer of a slave, you say, is lia- 
ble only to a pecuniary penalty. Such certainly 
was the law of that state ; and may be the law 
now. But, when you recollect the code from, 
which the principle was taken, you will perhaps 
concede that you ought to have been less preci- 
pitate in your condemnation, and less acrimoni- 

wouid have been quite as well for this writer to have 
come to this conclusion before he began to write. 

But, although he despairs of the present generation, 
he has some hope for their posterity. This hope rests 
on the anticipated result of a respectful address to the 
masters, who are to be persuaded to feed, clothe, and 
take care ofnegro children, that are to serve until 28, or 
even 35, knowing all the time that they are to be free 
when that period arrives ! And we are to be abused, 
and our peace and safety endangered, in consequence 
of such crude speculations as these ; because a man, 
whose family are not probably at all interested in their 
effects, their failure, or their success, chooses to come 
before the world with the word humanity in his mouth I 
In the report of the committee of the House of Assem- 
bly of the Bahama Islands, there is a remark on the abo- 
litionists of England, which applies with equal force to 
all abolitionists in America, who are not residents of 
slave-holding states. « The patriotism of the Abolition- 
' ists is of a quite different character, [meaning different 

* from that of those well-meaning reformers who heroic- 

* ally involve themselves in the ruin they occasion.] Se- 

* cured by a distance of upwards of a thousand leagues 

* from the theatre of their exploits, against ail individual 
4 danger, they pursue their sanguinary and ruinous 

* schemes, (for such they must inevitably prove in them 
« e>id, without any manner of risk to themselves, and 
« with an unrelenting spirit of spurious ambition, distin- 
« guished alike for cruelty and cowardice, push forward 
« their own headlong experiments, at the sole hazard of 

* other men's lives und fortunes." 

4* 



42 

ous in expressing it. The provision relating to 
the killing of a slave, in that code which all chris- 
tians call the law of God, ought to have occurred 
to you. « If a man smite his servant with a rod, 
< and he die under his hand, he shall be suely 
« punished : notwithstanding, if he continue a day 
4 or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his 
« money. "(26) I am very sensible that the mo- 
rality ol the bible is not pure enough for the hu- 
mane people of the present day ; but, as the act 
under consideration was passed in the year 1740, 
before the term of the assiento contract had ex- 
pired, which contract regarded slaves as money, 
the people of South Carolina will be excused for 
net being wiser or better than the bible, and those 
by whom their legislation was controlled. 

In the year 1783, immediately after the war, 
this act was (not " rendered perpetual," for it was 
not originally a temporary law, but) re-enacted, 
in a general law, intended to embrace those laws 
only, which the change in the government had 
not superseded. But let it be conceded that the 
date of this law should be fixed in 1783, you will 
readily admit that, whatever evidence it may af- 
ford of the opinions of that time, it cannot be 

(26) Exodas : chap. 21, v. 20,&c.Upon this law, Doctor 
Hewlett, a bible editor, publishes a note, for which he 
quotes a very distinguished orthodox divine, Bishop Pa- 
trick, who wrote three folio volumes of commentaries on 
the bible. The words of the note are : " His death was 
a loss to his master, who therefore might well be judged 
not to have any intention ofkilling him ; and \vi*s suffi- 
ciently punished by losing the benefit of his service." — 
Now, if the bible and the bishop, and the editor of^ a ve- 
ry recent edition of the bible, cannot protect my South- 
ern friends from your animadversions, I must leave them 
to make a defence for themselves. Perhaps, before they 
take that trouble, they may ask whether you really mean 
to attack them or their allies P We have heard before 
of a "war in disguise." 



43 

quoted as evidence of those which prevail now. 
In the course of six and thirty years of active and 
independent existence, a great change may have 
occurred in the sentiments and habits of the peo- 
ple, although the letter of the law may remain 
the same. A great change has taken place in 
the state of Virginia. It is universally conceded 
that the condition of the slave has been greatly 
improved within the last twenty years, and it 
might continue to be improved but for the per- 
petual interference of people here, who think 
themselves very humane, when in reality they 
are only very mischievous. Evidence in relation 
to the slaves in South Carolina now lies before 
me, in a paper received this day, to which I ask 
your attention. The writer is a Virginian : a 
clergyman of the Episcopal church : eminently 
respectable, but under the influence of that sort of 
philanthropy which has misled you and so many 
of my countrymen. He is rendering to the colo- 
nization Society at Washington an account of his 
conduct in some agency or mission, which carried 
him through South Carolina. Of that state he 
thus speaks : " I must here beg leave to mention, 

< for the gratification of the pious and humane, 

< and in justice to the character of the place, 
« (Charleston,)that I have never yet seen any town 
« South of this, (Washington,) where as muchat- 

< tention has been paid to the moral and religious 
« culture of the black people. Their attendance 

* in the church, where I was invited to officiate, 
4 and it was the same I was told in all the others, 

< was truly grateful to the soul of the christian. 
« The aisles, and other places in the church, set 

* apart for them, (27) were filled with young and 

(27) Yet Mr. Fearon, one of your travellers, says, that 
even tree negroes are not admitted into the churches vi- 
sited by the whites! ! I 



44 

< old, decently dressed, and many'of them having 

< their prayer books, and joining in the responses. 

< I must also beg leave to add another general re- 
« mark concerning the whole Southern country, in 

< which I am justified by the repeated assurances 

< of the most pious and benevolent, that the condi- 
« tion of the negroes is greatly ameliorated in eve- 

< ry respect. As to food, raiment, houses, labor, 

< and correction, there is yearly less and less, over 
« which religion and humanity must lament." Of 
the truth of this statement I entertain no doubt t 
no more than 1 have of the dangerous consequen- 
ces of these public movements, in relation to the 
blacks : which, if often repeated, must be emi- 
nently injurious to one class, and perhaps fatal to 
the other. 

Vehement as you are on the subject of black 
slavery, you denounce it with increased energy 
and eloquence, on account of its demoralizing 
tendency. If this doctrine be true, there is in- 
deed another thong added to the lash, with which 
we are so humanely scourged. But this doc- 
trine is denied ; in relation to us, at least, it is 
not true. The affirmation being yours, the bur- 
then of proof lies on you. Bring your evidence, 
exhibiting facts occurring here : no theories, 
founded on the history of a people placed in a 
situation different from ours : no declamation ; 
no eloquence. When facts, such as have been 
described, are exhibited, we can deckle at once 
whether they are true ; and, if true, whether they 
are material. With this requisition you cannot 
at this moment, if ever, comply. We will there- 
fore speak for ourselves. I will not violate your 
prohibitory admonition, and compare the inhabi- 
tants of the slave-holding states with an equal 
number of people belonging to the ' least and 
lowest of the European nations ;' not even with 
the people of those two nations, 0112 of which, at 



45 

a former period, not very remote, while speaking 
of us, you stigmatized as « bigotted,' and the other 
as 4 ferocious.' It is my pleasure — you, perhaps, 
may think it my duty, to confine myself within 
the limits of the United States. Well ! the con- 
tinent lies before us. Draw a line between the 
slave-holding states and the other states, and then 
compare the people of the two sections in point 
of honor, courage, patriotism, intelligence, mo- 
rals, manners, and temper : to the latter you 
Avill ascribe no superiority. 1 hey claim none : 
nor is any claimed against them. Happily for 
this nation the morals of the people depend on 
causes of higher order, and more powerful ope- 
ration. This line that you have drawn, never 
occurs to them. (28) In looking for that pure 
virtue, and exalted wisdom, to which the safety 
of the nation may be confided, we cast our eyes 
over the nation at large. Your theory, so dog- 
matically announced, is never thought of by a ci- 
tizen here, to whose senses all the evidence may 
be said to be presented : and it is a fact, which 
ought not to have escaped the notice of men like 
you, that the first President of the Revolutionary 
Congress, the only Commander in Chief of the 
Revolutionary army, the first President of the U. 
States, the third, the fourth, and the present Pre- 
sident of the United States, were ail selected from 
slave-holding states, and themselves the owners 
oi slaves. On this subject there is room for some 
very interesting speculations, which Mr. Burke 
commenced, and none are more competent to 

(28) Your selection of the state of South Carolina as 
the peculiar object of your philanthropic animadversion, 
was unfortunate for your theory of morals, or rather that 
which you have so inconsiderately adopted. The cha- 
racter of that state for honor and talents, always high, is 
at this moment emphatically a refutation, an illustrious 
refutation, of all your unfriendly speculations on this sub- 
ject. 



46 

continue than you. I have not the talent ; and if 
I had, this is no place for the exertion of it. My 
business is with the fact, and I repeat that the 
fact is with me. Demoralizing ! Gentlemen ad- 
vocating what they suppose to be the cause of 
humanity, may say any thing, and forget any 
thing. They can forget in a moment the great- 
est nations that ever existed : greater than any 
that now exist: nations, among whom education 
was conducted by philosophers, and not, as in 
Europe, by priests : priests, who have piously 
contrived to tike possession of man as soon as he 
is born, and never to quit their hold until they 
have laid him in the grave. 1 ask you, then, if 
you wished to hold up, as an example to your 
countrymen or to the world, an individual of the 
highest dignity, distinguished by every virtue and 
every quality which render a man great and his 
country illustrious, where would you instantly 
turn your eyes ? Would you pause for a moment 
among the priest-worn people of Europe, or 
Would you go at once to Greece and Rome ? 
states in which slavery existed, in a degree of 
which slave-holders of the present day can form 
no conception.(J9) 



(29) Chateaubriand (Travels into Greece, Palestine, 
&c.) ascribes the superiority of the great men of Athens 
and Rome over those of modern times, to the existence 
among them of domestic slavery. Mr. C. is mistaken. 
The Turks have slaves ; the Asiatics have slaves ; the Afri- 
cans have & always have hadslavesamo'.g them. They are 
all barbarians still. The true cause, 1 believe, is given 
in the text. Helvetius understood the subject better 
than Mr. C. In fact, how can any people ever be a great 
people, where the prejudices, moral, political, and reli- 
gious, imbibed in early lite, are so various, and so blend- 
ed with the belief we entertain of the most sacred and 
important truths, that a great part of the life of a philo- 
sopher must be devoted, not so much to the acquisition 
of new knowledge, as to unlearn the errors impressed 
upon him while young ? Such are the language and opi- 
nions of Dugald Stewart. 



47 

I shall not pursue this subject farther. For a 
complete answer to the writer (Mr. Jefferson) 
whom you have quoted, if the answer already gi- 
ven be not sufficient, I refer you to the J 3th and 
14th chapters of Arator : a practical man, who, 
having, by industry and agricultural skill, em- 
ployed upon a very large scale, made ten blades 
of grass to grow where one only could be found 
before, has done more good than all the philan- 
thropists now living in the world, put together.(SO) 
To him I refer you. I will cause these chapters 
to be republished here. They will stand as good 
a chance to reach you as this address. 

Gentlemen allow nre one moment to remark 
to you that, if you wish again to quote the illus- 
trious man whose fame you endeavor to depre- 
ciate, while you rely on the evidence of his opi- 
nion, you will not, 1 trust, select a sentence writ- 
ten nearly forty "years ago, addressedto a foreign- 
er, in one of those moments of feeling which all 
good men experience : moments in which the 
heart will dictate, and in which the judgment is 
not only not consulted, but not regarded. (31) If 

(30) The author of Arator is Col. John Taylor,, of Ca- 
roline county, Virginia ; first an office* in the Revolu- 
tionary army, then a practising lawyer, Member of the 
General Assembly, Senator of the United States, one of 
the best farmers in Virginia, and President of the Metro- 
politan Agricultural Society. Brought up among slaves, 
an owner of many, elegant in his manners, liberal in all 
his opinions, eminently distinguished for his eloquence 
in public, and his colloquial talents, and still more for the 
imperturbable serenity of his temper. 

There is a French saying, and a very good one, " that ". 
when a man is fit fur nothing else, he* will do for a phi- 
lanthropist." 

(31) It ought to be remarked that Mr. J's Notes were 
written under the influence of impressions made on his 
mind during the colonial government. Since that time 
a great change has taken place. Even at the time when 
he wrote, « the change,' he say3 himscJf, « was already 
perceptible.' The picture which he then drew bears 



48 

you wish to quote Mr. Jefferson again, quote him 
not against his countrymen, but for the benefit of 
your own. Take something from his writings,or 
his acts of legislation, which, incorporated in the 
laws and systems of Europe, will soon clear them 
of the rubbish by which they are disgraced. Take 
for instance, from the bill to establish religious 
freedom, that single sentence which announces 
this sublime and eternal truth : * Where discus- 
sion is free, error ceases to be dangerous.' Gen- 
tlemen, if you will permit me also to borrow the 
refined language of the warehouse, I will take the 
Jiberty to add, that 1 would not barter this princi- 
ple alone, established and maintained as it is here, 
for all the 4 bales, hogsheads,' and even cargoes of 

now but a slight resemblance to the reality. I do not 
know a man cruel to his slaves. I have heard of a few : 
verv few : many yeajs ago. They lived abhorred. The 
people of Europe can form no idea of the force of pubhc 
opinion, in a country where the who ; e body of the vvinte 
people constitute only one class, and the source of all 
power. A cruel man would not be endured. The mur- 
der of a slave, in Virginia, is punished now (notiormer- 
ly) with death ; and, incredible as it may appear, the 
offence, it is believed, is committed ten tunes un white 
people, where it is committed once on the blacks. Such 
an occurrence is indeed extremely rare. 

It is to be inferred, from the tenor of the reference to 
Mr. J's book, that you have only seen the extract fur- 
nished by Mr. Hall. If you could see all that the notes 
contain, on the subject before us, you would be entirely 
convinced, if you have not felt the conviction already, as 
I hope you have, that, in questions which touch our feel- 
ings, the best heart and the clearest head are not always 
a security against error. Upon some subjects even a 
philosopher thinks ' he doth well to be angry ;' and Mr. 
J. himself stops short, lest he should become * intempe- 
rate.' Mr. J. if not intemperate, spoke without much 
reflection. He talks of exporting blacks, and importing 
whites, as if it were a mere matter of ordinary commer- 
cial arrangement : just as we do in Virginia of shipping- 
hogsheads of tobacco, and as you do of shipping "bales 
and hogsheads of sense, science, and genius." 



49 

science and genius that may be exported from the 
United Kingdoms for a thousand years to come. 
And although Mr. J's "fame may not be strong 
enough for exportation," a figure borrowed, I 
presume, from the wine-cellar, and which hap- 
pens to apply literally to the best wine in the 
world, yet I beg leave, by the present opportuni- 
ty to address, to your special care, a package con- 
taining the following article, which will « bear 
exportation," manufactured in America, on the 
4th day of July, 1776, by this same Mr. Jefferson. 
It i held iri high estimation in this country; and 
if you could persuade some few of your states- 
men to wear it, there would be an end of the pre- 
sent fashion in England, of dying the hoofs of 
horses, and the sabres of yeomen, in the biood of 
unoffending and unarmed men, and defenceless 
women. The article is this : " Prudence, indeed, 
" will dictate, that governments long established 
" should not be changed for light and transient 
« causes : Jind, accordingly, all experience hath 
" shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suf- 
"fer, while evils are sufferable, than to right 
" themselves by abolishing the forms to which 
" they are accustomed." I asi pardon of every 
patriot Briton for the apparent levity with which 
an allusion has been made to the massacre at 
Manchester : but in my heart there is no senti- 
ment except that of the most profound concern. 

I .mean not to pay you a compliment when I 
say, that you are often very profound. You pre- 
sent a subject to us in every light, and we see at 
once its cause and its consequences. Will you 
have the goodness to devote a small portion of 
your talent for investigation to this subject, and 
trace to its origin that sentiment in favor of Af- 
rican freedom, which has of late, so very lately, 
sprung up in Great Britain, and which retains all 
its vivacity and vigor, in defiance of carnage and 
4 



conflagration ? How came it to pass, that religion, 
and humanity too, were silent, while slavery, in 
some form, existed in every part of Europe, in- 
cluding Great Britain ? f32) That they are equal- 
ly silent now with respect to the slavery that still 
prevails in a great portion of that quarter of the 
globe ? That they view, apparently, with total 
unconcern, the complicated sufferings of an op- 
pressed and afflicted people, whose misfortune it is 
to be white? That black slavery, which has ex- 
isted ever since .Africa was inhabited, and has 
existed here for nearly two hundred years, plant- 
ed by your hand, cherished by your legislative 
cares, sliould now, since the American revolution 
'—since we separated ourselves from you—be, all 
at once, discovered to be a *« blot," a " crime," a 
"wickedness, with 'which no measures are to be 
kept ?" How came it to pass, that, in the year 
1772. we could not persuade you to hearken to 
our prayers, founded on fears for our safety, as 
wcli as a belief that the trade was inhuman ? You 
were inexorable : deaf. But now, since the whole 
colonial system of France is deranged ; now, that 
we are an independent people, whose happiness 
and safety may be essentially impaired by the de- 
nunciation of slavery ; now t slavery is a horrible 
crime in the United States. Now humanity is 
roused from her long repose, and because we can- 
not extricate ourselves from a situation, in which, 
by no fault of our own, we are placed, we are 
« beneath the least and lowest of the European 
nations." Inform us, if you please of the ori- 
gin of this new born zeal, in whose movements 
•we are so deeply concerned ? Is it all pure, 
unadulterated humanity ? Sympathy for the 
blacks, and good will towards us ? If it be the 



(32) There were slaves in Great Britain, in the time 
tf Elizabeth, 1574.— Reb. ch. 5, vol. 1, note U. 



51 

first, employ it at home, in your own domin- 
ions ; if the latter, we assure you that we want it 
not. It does not come, even in a questionable 
shape. We beg to be permitted to judge for 
ourselves, and to act for ourselves. We have re- 
jected) and the members of the alliance, piously 
and modestly calling itself the Holy Alliance, have 
rejected, the proposition made by your Minister 
at the conferences in September, 18 18, to subject, 
in certain latitudes, the trading ships of all na- 
tions to search, by the commissioned ships of all 
other nations ; and to establish an anomalous tri- 
bunal, for the condemnation and punishment of 
all infractions of the laws prohibiting the slave 
trade. This proposition, to be sure, sounded 
well, admirably well : but it is easy to discern, 
through the exterior of humanity, a policy well 
calculated to bend the necks of all the maritime 
nations of the world to the yoke of your naval su- 
premacy, while it exposes their peace, as the 
French Minister (the Duke of R.) most truly re- 
marked, to the most fearful jeopardy. 

And, after all, where is the great differ- 
ence, in estimating the mass of human misery, 
between slavery and service. In a certain stage 
of society, that is, when the population is thin, 
and when the demand for service exceeds the 
supply, the difference in favor of the latter is ad- 
mitted to be great: but, when the country be- 
comes more populous, 8c labor, after having been 
sought by employment, begins itself to seek em- 
ployment, the hireling is in a state of more ab- 
solute dependence than a slave, and proves that 
he is so, by working much harder and faring 
much worse. In a state of society still more ad- 
vanced, where manufactures have encouraged a 
■wretched population, and where poor laws, found- 
ed in humanity — meddling, erring humanity — 
have increased the numbers and the miseries of 



52 

the poor, and their vices too, then the advantage 
is on the side of the slave. Such is the condition 
of a great portion of your country now. The 
scenes of want and woe exhibited there, familiar 
to you, make but a slight impression ; but, to us, 
they appear awful. Frequent assemblies of live, 
ten, twenty thousand people, anxious for labor 
and clamorous for bread, which, if obtained, must 
be obtained from charity ; quiet, sometimes from 
a deep conviction of their own impotence and ut- 
ter insignificance in the scale of British subjects, 
and sometimes from fear of the bayonet, which 
turns towards them whichever way they move; 
wretched, not only from a sense of present suf- 
fering, but from a gluomy anticipation of that 
still greater suffering which attends their wasted 
strength in the decline of life, present a specta- 
cle unlike any thing that can be seen in Ameri- 
ca, and, I will venture to affirm, to a man of real 
humanity, infinitely more afflicting. I repeat, 
then, my question, what is this difference ? Man, 
if not « made to mourn," was made to labor. The 
services required in society must be performed, 
and will be performed by whites, if not by blacks. 
Well, are not the laboring whites, if constantly 
at work, poor as well as the blacks ? Are they 
not ignorant, quite as ignorant as the blacks ? 
Are they not also in a state of more absolute de- 
pendence than the blacks, evinced by their hard- 
er labor, poorer food, and greater suffering ? It 
is true, they cannot be chastised, except with mo- 
deration, perhaps not at all : but they may be 
driven off without a character, and left to perish 
or to steal. Are not your high-ways infested, 
your jails filled, and your military ranks supplied 
by discarded serving men? And if a poor man 
submits to hard labor and harsh treatment, for the 
sake of a family, is not his heart in a state of con- 
stant misery, from the anticipation of that poverty 



53 

and wretchedness which he knows will be their 
lot ? From all this anguish, the slave is free. 
He feels no anxiety about his own support, nor 
any apprehension that his children may starve. 
He enjoys the comfort of a family — the first and 
greatest," after all, that man, white or black, can 
have — and this comfort is without alloy. When 
sick, attended by a physician, he is nursed by his 
own family, directed by his master, or most pro- 
bably his mistress ; and, when old, if of good 
name and behaviour, greeted almost universally 
by the respectful and affectionate epithet of uncle, 
he spends his last years without labor, except 
such as he chooses to undertake, without want, 
without fear for his children or his grandchildren, 
in the midst of those whom, through life, or for 
many years, he has been accustomed to love and 
to respect. He knows, indeed, that his children 
are slaves; but he knows also that it has pleased 
Almighty God to separate him and his children 
from the white people, by a difference of color, 
quite as great as the difference of their condition, 
and more constantly presented to the senses. 

Now, gentlemen, estimate this difference care- 
fully; and, if such be vour pleasure or your opi- 
nion, make no deduction from the mass of mise- 
ry imputed to the blacks, on account of a sense 
of inferiority to the whites, arising irom various 
causes, but particularly from color: make no 
deduction in consequence of the fact, that almost 
every black in America was born a slave, and 
viewed and felt himself as such, from the earliest 
moment of his consciousness : nor on account of 
his entire exemption from that anxious and op- 
pressive feeling produced by the anticipation of 
poverty and want. Let it be conceded, too, that 
there is error in supposing that in certain stages 
of society the condition of the blacks is to be pre- 
ferred. Let all this be so. What then? Will 
5* 



54 

the chance of benefit to be obtained by the blacks, 
at any assignable period, justify an interference 
which goes into the midst of every family, into 
the interior of every household ; an interference 
which, if systematic and of gradual operation, 
must be known to the slave, whose unborn and 
distant posterity are alone to be released, and will, 
fit have any effect, render him discontented, and 
nis owner severe ? This surely can contribute 
to the happiness of neither, and may terminate in 
the extirpation of the very people who are the 
object of all this indignant eloquence, and fierce 
and unappeasable humanity. Do you not know 
and feel, at this moment, how difficult, how dan- 
gerous it is, to touch any system, no matter how 
wrong, which, having been established for centu- 
2'ies, has incorporated itself with the manners, 
habits, and sentiments of society, and had no in- 
considerable effect in making that society what it 
is. Look at your own poor laws. See the mis- 
chiefs which they produce to the poor — the very 
persons intended to be relieved. Can you repeal 
these laws ? Impossible. Can you submit to their 
progressive operation ? I give no opinion ; but 
I will say, that our case is attended by difficul- 
ties and dangers incalculably greater, unless we 
are left entirely to oui selves. 

There is another consideration, in relation t 
this estimate, to which I must again call your at- 
tention. The condition of the blacks is every day 
improving. It is better now than it was twenty 
years ago ; and twenty years hence, if we can 
keep clear of speculation in humanity, it will be 
better still. The reverse is the case with the 
poor white laborer. Every year his situation 
grows worse ; until at length he is reduced to the 
minimum by which a wretched existence can be 
sustained. Can it then be wise or humane to ven- 
ture on any interposition, any scheme to improve 



55 

that which of itself is daily growing better ? In 
such a state, and such a prospect of things, can 
it be right to hazard an experiment by which the 
very foundations of society will be changed, with- 
out a clear foresight and conviction that the per- 
sons for whose sake the change is to be effected 
will be essentially benefited ? 

Let us examine this point more in detail. Will 
you couipare the condition of the poor in Eng- 
land. (33) fed on potatoes and a little salt, with 
that of our slaves on a well-regulated plantation, 
enjoying their weekly allowance of meat or salted 
fish, their gardens filled with cabbages and sweet 
potatoes, the only potatoe they would deign to 
eat, their fowls, their dogs and their traps for 
game, their fishing-rods when in the vicinity of 
mill-ponds or rivers, 8c, above all, their corn meal 
bread — the best bread that the poor ever had, in 
in any part or in any period of the world ! Now, 
without going farther into this comparison, say- 
ing nothing of many other advantages which 
slaves possess, or of their entire exemption from 

(33) Mr. Palmer, in the debate before referred to, 
states, in the face of the British nation, that the slaves in 
the West Indies had, until within the last two years, (al- 
luding probably to the time about which the Registry Bill 
had been introduced by Mr. Wilberforce,) " enjoyed a 
" sum of comfort and content, not only very considera- 
" ble, but capable of no disadvantageous comparison with 
«• the condition of the lower classes in any other country, 
" even in Great Britain" Now, without meaning to ar- 
rogate any thing to the people of this country, in preju- 
dice of the people of the West India islands, 1 think it 
may be fairly stated that if Mr. Palmer's remark be 
correct as to the West Tndies, it would be more emphati- 
cally correct in relation to the people of the United 
States; simply because slaves fare better under the care 
of a master than under that of an overseer, and, in the 
United States, ninety-nine slaves perhaps out of every 
hundred are under the eye of the owner ; which proba- 
bly is not the case in the West Tndies, many of the most 
opulent proprietors residing in Great Britain. 



56 



those heart-rending evils inseparable from the 
poverty of the whites, I ask you to take a distinct 
view of the condition to which they will be reduced 
when the " glorious" plan of their emancipation 
shall have been effected. Of the mischiefs done 
to the whites, during the 30, 40. 50, or 100 years 
which may be required for the consummation of 
this great work ; of the evils which they must suf- 
fer; of the privations, expenses, and trials, and 
dangers, to which they will be exposed; I say 
nothing. I should not be heard. All sympathy, 
all humanity, is now black or copper-colored. 

Let us suppose ourselves at the expiration of 
the period required, and that you are invited to 
come to America and witness the effects which 
your eloquence and philanthropy have contribut- 
ed to produce. You spring up with alacrity. 
Yes, you will take this delightful view, exclaim- 
ing, with enthusiasm, and is it true, that the poor 
black man is at length restored to his rights ; that 
there is not a slave south of the Potomac. You 
are answered, come and see. Well ! you arrive; 
you look about with exultation ; you cast your 
eyes in every direction: but soon your counte- 
nance is changed. You tremble and turn pale. 
At length, in a voice enfeebled by apprehension, 
you ask, where are the black people ? Surely 
these are not all. They are all. All ! there is 
not one third of the r umber that existed 30 years 
ago. What has become of them ? Have you, „ 
with Lacedemonian policy and cruelty, treated 
them like Helots ? Indeed ive have not. Short 
and simple are the annals of these wretched vic- 
tims of ever restless, mistaken philanthropy. 
Brought up with the expectation of having the 
uncontrolled command of their own time and 
movements, they never labored when they could 
be idle They often anticipated by flight and 
concealment the looked-for period, and were fre- 



57 

quently dismissed by their indignant owners long 
before the period of their service had expired. 
Petty combinations for plunder were soon form- 
ed, and soon suppressed. But the aversion to la- 
bor could not be overcome. Idleness produced 
want; and then followed, in rapid and inevitable 
succession, misery, discontent, crimes, punish- 
ment, insurrection. The latter reduced the num- 
ber far below what you now see it : but, as the 
survivors have been distributed among; the peo- 
ple, at their own prayer, as slaves, they will pro- 
bably again increase and multiply, as they did in 
happier times. You retire disappointed, afflict- 
ed, overwhelmed; solemnly declaring that you 
will never again open your lips as to the domestic 
concerns of the people of any nation of the globe. 

But let us take a more favorable view, though 
by no means so likely to occur. Let us sup- 
pose that the people of a state, where the black 
population is nearly equal to the white, foresee- 
ing the mischief already described, proceed at 
once to the establishment of such a military ar- 
rangement as extinguishes all hope on the part 
of the blacks, of obtaining any thing, but by labor 
and industry. This supposition is the most fa- 
vorable for them that can be made. They are 
free, and they know that their subsistence de- 
pends on their labor, and their happiness on their 
good conduct. Does philanthropy ask more ? 

There is, in such a state of things, an obvious 
and most important circumstance, the effects of 
which have never been duly estimated. This, 
however, ought not to afford matter of surprise. 
Philanthropy disdains to calculate. It rushes for- 
ward towards its object, trampling as it goes, on 
the best feelings of the heart, the dearest interests 
of society, the recorded precepts of religion, and 
the acknowledged principles of law, before it has 
ascertained the real value of the object thus im- 



58 

petuously sought, and even whether the object 
thus sought be in truth attainable. 

The circumstance to which I allude is simply 
this : the blacks when freed are blacks still — 
They are negroes in spite of freedom. 

In ancient Rome, when freedom was conferred 
on a slave, he took his station in society at once, 
according to his manners and capacity. He be- 
came a Roman citizen, without any mark of his 
former servitude and degradation. He stood up- 
on a footing with the great body of the people, 
and was authorized to aspire to the highest hon- 
ors of the state. Such, at least, was the fact, 
at the time when the pride of imperial Rome, car- . 
ried as high as civil and military power could 
carry it, bore some faint resemblance to the pride 
of ecclesiastical Rome, some centuries after- 
wards^ 3 4) 

How different is the case of the blacks. They 
are poor and spiritless, because, though free, 
they are black. They constitute, and must forever 
constitute, and know, and feel tha f they constitute 
an inferior and degraded cast. For conclusive 
evidence of the truth of this opinion, I appeal to 
the actual condition of the free blacks in your 
country, as well as in our own : particularly in 
that part of our own country where the denunci- 
ation of slavery is expressed in the strongest 
terms. This cannot be helped. The nature of 
man cannot be changed. Philanthropy may de- 
claim : it has declaimed, is now declaiming, and 
will continue to declaim : but the sentiment pro- 



(34) It is a circumstance worthy of notice,that, during 
the existence of the republic, and even during the ear- 
ly period of the empire, while some sentiment of liber- 
ty continued, the effect of emancipation was less favora- 
ble. Three or four generations were required to pass a- 
way, before the ignominy of a servile origin could be 
effaced. 



59 

duced by difference of color will be as eternal 
and unchangeable as the decree of the Almighty 
by which that difference was ordained. To this 
dispensation we must all submit, and submit in si- 
lence. " It is God who hath marie us, and not we 
ourselves." <• Shall the thing formed say to him 
which formed it, why hast thou made me thus ?" 
I take it for granted, then, the emancipated 
blacks are forever to constitute this inferior and 
degraded cast. The only plan of emancipation 
that I have ever seen, and which has been recent- 
ly brought out from the obscurity into which it 
sunk soon after its exhibition, proposes to per- 
petuate their degradation by legal coercion. They 
are to hold no office,no freehold in lands — to keep 
no arms — to marry only with blacks : not to act 
as attorneys, jurors, witnesses, executors,, or ad- 
ministrators. They are to be incapable of mak- 
ing any will; they cannot be trustees of lands, 
nor can any body be a trustee for them ! Such 
is to be the condition of the blacks : such is the 
sentence which philanthropy itself has pronounc- 
ed. Now, pause for a moment, and see the con- 
dition to which they are reduced. They are free, 
it is true. They are under no immeditate per- 
sonal control. Yes, they are free to choose a mas- 
ter. This is the head and front of their freedom. 
It hath this extent : no more. They are poor; and 
they must labor for a subsistence. This is all 
that they can ever obtain. Any thing like dis- 
tinction is utterly beyond ther- reach, even with 
equal physical endowments, which they have not. 
Any thing like equality, even if otherwise attain- 
able, is interdicted. If then they become indo- 
lent, as they are naturally disposed to be, and want 
bread, who will supply them ? If heedless, as they 
always are, and led blindly on by the feelings of 
the moment, as they forever will be, they form 
matrimonial connections, and have many chil- 



6Q 

dren— .who will prescribe for them when sick feed 
them when hungry, or clotne them when naked ? 
If they are illy treated,who is to protect them ? In 
such a state of things, is it not manifest that they 
have exchanged a iife of comparative ease tor the 
mere name of freedom, while, by a decree of the 
Almighty, the gulph which separates them from 
the whiles is as impassable as ever:— that they 
must become indoient, careless, vicious sunk in 
their own esteem ? Degraded by nature and by 
law, they pine away their lives in hopeless dejec- 
tion, and feel no desire to raise up children to be 
as wretched as themselves. They languish, de- 
cay, and, in a few,centuries of wretchedness and 
vice, they disappear. Such are the triumphs of 
philanthropy. 

Gentlemen, did it never occur t© you that the 
application of opprobrious epithets to a people 
speaking the same language with yourselv es, must 
unavoidably be productive of mischief and blood- 
shed ; 8c that if such effects be produced, there is 
an awful responsibility fixed upon those who in- 
troduced these epithets ? What is the state of 
things even now, when the officers of our res- 
pective navies meet ? Polite, ceremoniously po- 
lite, as they may be, are they not always on the 
watch ? Can one " bite his thumb" withoutbe- 
ing required by the other to explain ? Will what 
you have said allay this proud spirit of defiance 
and hostility ? or will it exacerbate that spirit, by 
throwing into it a feeling of revenge ? 

Has it never occurred to you that an interfer- 
ence with the interior concerns of such a people, 
is of a very different character from any interfer- 
ence with the affairs of a nation speaking a lan- 
guage of its own ? We were once under the do- 
minion of Great Britain. From her we derived 
our language, our laws, and principles of juris- 
prudence, which we think we have improved - t 



61 

much of our literature, (such as it is. you will 
say,) our science, (if, say you again, if deserve* 
the name,) and a great proportion of the taste, 
sentiment, and even opinions, which we possess. 
Much of all the literary information which we 
daily receive, is indicated to us by yourselves. 
At this momentyour influence among us is great. 
You have been already quoted ov er and ovt r again 
on the subject now under consideration. Ought 
you nOt, therefore, to be as to us, particularly on 
your guard ? You knew not our situation v ith 
respect to slaves ; you know not their numbers, 
nor their habits ; you are ignorant of their actual 
condition : yet you encourage the zealots and en- 
thm asts of this country, by affording the sanction 
of v< v.r high character, to persevere in their ef- 
forts Without plan, though not without an object; 
while it is manifest to every thinking man that 
emancipation here must be effected, it effected at 
all, as it was brought about in a great part of Eu- 
rope, and in England particularly — by the gradu- 
al and silent working of events, and not by the aid 
of law or visionary philanthropy. Gentlemen : 
when from the spirit of impatience and discon- 
tent among the blacks, which you and your asso- 
ciates here may, in due time,(35) produce, the 
conflagration of a city and the murder of its inha- 
bitants, shall have excited a war of extermination, 
or a state of slavery like that which existe:, in 
Borne what will be your feelings ? Will you not 
deeply and bitterly lament that you contributed 
to bring woe and death into this Distant world, 
and that you had not confined your humanity to 
your own country, where so tmny objects call a- 
loudforits exertions ? I entreat you, then, on 
t 1 subject at least, to leave us to ourselves. Of 

The effect of the discissions among the r.boli- 
ti; ijists and colonizers, on the black people, is already 
casilv discerned. 

6 



62 

our public conduct say what you please. We are 
willing to appear, like others, before the grand 
inquest of nations, and, like others, to make our 
defence on points in which all are interested, and 
all have a right to judge. But, in concerns ex- 
clusively our own, especially this concern, whose 
origin is traced to you, leave us to ourselves. 
Be content with the happy consciousness of your 
own " greatness and humanity," and bless God 
that you are not, like us,re-publicans and sinners. 
"We do not interfere with you. When you tear 
20,000 British subjects from their homes, their 
wives, their children, and their long desired re- 
pose, and force them into ships of war, where la- 
bor and stripes, suffering in every form, and dan- 
ger and death, in every shape, assail them, we sa- 
nothing. It is your business not yours. We pity 
and are silent. We do not tell you that the me- 
teor flag of England should be carried over the 
deep by mariners who are free, nor that the ex- 
orbitant revenues of a few of your stalled theoloy 
gists would be sufficient to afford an inducement 
to volunteer service. This subject, and subjects 
like this, are safe from our animadversion. We 
know how difficult it is, in old and established 
systems, to make a change for the better, even 
when a change seems obviously required. We 
are therefore spectators, and spectators only. Act 
in the same manner towards us : Leave us to 
manage our concerns in our own way, 8c do not ex- 
ult over us, by ostentatiously contrasting your 
" greatness and humanity" with our littleness and 
cruelty. Gentlemen, on these points you throw 
awt.y your eloquence; you waste your sweetness 
in the ocean air. It has no effect here. Believe 
me, we are neither awed by your greatness, nor 
impressed by your humanity. If you wish to in- 
dulge yourselves on these topics, address your- 
elvestothe Danes, to the Norwegians, to the 



63 

Irish, to the exiled patriots of Spain, to the Ge- 
noese, and, touching at St Helena, go on to the 
50 millions of Hindoos, who, no doubt, in their 
daily devotions, thank their Gods for the peace, 
plenty, and happiness which your administration 
has so long diffused throughout their land. Trust 
me, gentlemen, they will be unanimous in their 
decision. 

When I began this letter, I expected that it 
would occupy but a small space. At a distance 
from home, and destitute of many advantages 
which home would have afforded, I meant to have 
addressed to you a few general remarks. The 
field of observation, however, seemed to extend 
itself as I advanced ; and, much as I have said, a 
great deal more remains to be urged. This can 
be done, and no doubt will be done, at a future 
day, by son : e person more equal to the task. I 
have said enough however, I trust, to convince 
all reasonable men that the « institution of sla- 
very," though it may be the « curse," is not the 
" crime" of my country, and that every effort, in 
the present state of things, to remove it, must be 
not only unavailing, but pernicious. 

Writing to men whose vocation it is to criti- 
cise as well as to write, I regret, on your account 
more than on my own, tha* I had not time (such 
is indeed the fact) to give to this desultory and 
cumbrous letter, written in three different and 
distant places, a better form. But if the matter 
contained in it shall induce you to view the sub- 
ject on which you have so hastily spoken, with 
it; ore attention, 10 form an opinion with more de- 
liberation, and to express that opinion in terms 
more consistent with the principles you profess, I 
shall feel little concern as to the estimate which 
you or others may form of my epistolary talents. 
Yo'< cannot ra*c them lower than I do. 
Notwitlistanuing the unqualified disapprobation 



64 

which I feel and have expressed, of your manner, 
and tone, and language, in relation to this co n- 
try. and of the doctrines which you have so con- 
fidently asserted, I will not permit myself to con- 
clude without acknowledging the high sense I en- 
tertain of the ability displayed, generally, in the 
Edinburhg Review ; and to convince you that I 
have spoken more in sorrow than in anger, I 
beg leave to assure you of my sincere wish 
that the arguments which you have offered to 
discourage emigration, may be aided by such a 
policy, on the part of your government, as will 
deprive your countrymen of every motive for 
quitting the land of their sires. 

AN AMERICAN. 
P. S. The prophecy contained in the antepe- 
nultimate paragraph of this letter, appears to 
have been anticipated by the event. An octavo 
volume has been published by a gentleman of 
Philadelphia, containing a notice and refutation 
of the calumnies uttered in Great Britain against 
the United States. A large and interesting por- 
tion of this volume is devoted to the subject on 
which I have ventured to address you. I recom- 
mend it to your serious consideration, and that of 
my own countrymen also. It is the work of a 
gentleman whose talents, a few years past, attract- 
ed your notice, and merited and received your 
distinguished approbation. It is the work, too, of a 
citizen residing in a state uncontaminated by the 
*« atrocious crime" with which u no measures are 
to be kept," and who therefore may be supposed 
to be exempt from that bias and prejudice to 
which, in a more southern latitude, he might have 
been exposed Yet I cannot say that I admire the 
literary warfare into which he has been provoked 
to enter, however favorable my opinion may be 
of the skill with which it is conducted. I do not 
think that hostilities of this kind are calculated to 



65 

diminish that «« hatred and contempt which race 
feels for race." But the fault is on your side of 
the Atlantic, not on ours. We delight in peace: 
peace between nations, and the individuals com- 
posing them. Our wars, therefore, are always 
defensive ; and defensive wars, you know, are al- 
most always successful. In the present instance 
the writer has come out and thrown his gauntlet 
in the face of all the reviewers and writers in 
Great Britain, hostile to his country. He h;is lei- 
sure, talents, information, and zeal ; and I most 
cheerfully leave in his hands the defence of the 
character and conduct of the United States against 
all the forces that may be combined against him- 




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